Friday, August 24, 2007
Iraqi Kurds warn Iran about shelling
Region
(RFE/RL) - Responding to reports that the Iranian military is shelling Iraqi Kurdish villages, Jabbar Yawir, the undersecretary of the autonomous Kurdistan region's Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs, said, "I cannot believe that the Islamic Republic of Iran would lead its forces to commit such a mistake, since shelling the territories of another state is a violation of international conventions," the Peyamner news agency reported on August 22.
Referring to media reports that Iranian helicopters dropped leaflets warning Iraqi Kurds to abandon their villages ahead of a planned bombing campaign against Kurdish separatists, Yawir said: "If these leaflets were really distributed by an official Iranian Army source, then Iran is accusing itself of bombarding the territories of the [Iraqi] Kurdistan region".
Al-Sharqiyah television reported on August 22 that the political bureaus of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party held an emergency meeting in Baghdad to discuss the shelling, among other issues. They called on the Iraqi government to send a letter of protest to Iran, the news channel reported.
Spokesman Jamal Abdallah said the Kurdistan regional government has sent a letter of protest to Iran, "Awene" reported on August 22. Meanwhile, "Kurdistan Nuwe" quoted a source as saying that tanks, armored vehicles, and long-range artillery have been deployed along the Iranian border. The source contended that Turkish soldiers were also seen in the area, prompting fears of a joint Turkish-Iranian operation.
Labels: Iran, KDP, Kurdistan, Major General Jabbar Yawir, PUK, Turkey
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Plan to deploy Pesmerga to Kirkuk creates dissention
Security
(AINA) - The Baghdad government plans to send 6,000 Kurdish soldiers -- known as peshmerga -- to help secure oil and electricity installations in the multiethnic region of Kirkuk. Jabbar Yawir, the undersecretary of the autonomous Kurdistan region's Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs, says the Kurdish self-rule government and the federal government in Baghdad have agreed to send the troops to protect sensitive sites in the oil-rich Kirkuk Governorate.
Those sites include power facilities and parts of the oil pipeline that leads from Mosul to the port of Ceyhan in Turkey -- the conduit for most oil exports from northern Iraq's oil fields. The forces belong to the government of Kurdish-administered northern Iraq, which is pushing for Kirkuk to be incorporated into the Kurdistan region. The plan to deploy peshmerga troops has therefore provoked controversy among minority groups in Kirkuk Governorate, which is under the control of the Baghdad government and outside the current Kurdish region.
According to Yawir, the deployment can begin as soon as there is a final green light from Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. It remains uncertain when that approval might come. But in the meantime, the proposal is being received with mixed opinions in multiethnic Kirkuk Governorate. Jawad al-Janabi, a member of the Kirkuk Governorate Council and a representative of the predominantly Kurdish Kirkuk Brotherhood List, said that if peshmerga forces are deployed to Kirkuk, they will succeed in implementing security plans for the region.
"If we recall when the city of Kirkuk was liberated [with the toppling of the Saddam Hussein regime in 2003], for six months during the presence of peshmerga forces there, we had a very good security situation, and people were able to come and go, even after midnight," al-Janabi says. "These forces are Iraqi before being Kurdish; they are sons of the Iraqi people," he continues. "They are regular troops, and will provide support for the security forces in the [Kirkuk] governorate."
But leaders of Kirkuk's other two largest ethnic groups, the Turkoman and Arab communities, disagree. Hassan Toran, a representative of the Turkoman group in the Kirkuk Governorate Council, says any deployment of peshmerga forces to Kirkuk should only be carried out with the agreement of all parties, and warned that the details of the planned deployment remain obscure.
"Some say that they are to protect the pipelines and power lines between Kirkuk and Baiji. And some say that they are to protect the Governorate of Kirkuk," Toran says. "I believe that this should be done only with the agreement of all the parties in the Governorate Council. Whether they agree or not, the subject should be open to discussion because it is a matter that concerns more than one ethnic group or one [party] list; it concerns the whole of Kirkuk Governorate."
Muhammad Khail, a member of the Arab group in the Governorate Council, says any protection force should be composed of all the groups that form the governorate's social fabric. "The [Kurdistan] regional government intends to bring 6,000 peshmerga to Kirkuk, but I believe that this will not solve the problem," he says. "There is a sufficient Iraqi Army [presence] in Kirkuk. They can form units. Why are the other units not being given the proper role in defending Kirkuk in a proper way?"
Khail recalls hearing of the formation of security units from other ethnic groups, such as Turkomans or Arabs, but he says he does not believe that such groups can solve Kirkuk's problems. "They need to form a security force for the national defense of Kirkuk. A national force can obtain information prior to an event, and that's what's important," he says.
Kirkuk, which also has communities of Chaldean Assyrians and Christians, is some 250 kilometers north of Baghdad. The city has seen devastating car bomb attacks, mostly aimed at either of the two main Kurdish political parties in northern Iraq, and repeated sabotage of power lines and the oil pipeline. If the peshmerga deploy to the province, it will not be the first time Kurdish forces have been sent to help secure areas outside the three Kurdish-administered provinces of northern Iraq. Three battalions of peshmerga were sent to Baghdad in March to help with security in the capital.
Those sites include power facilities and parts of the oil pipeline that leads from Mosul to the port of Ceyhan in Turkey -- the conduit for most oil exports from northern Iraq's oil fields. The forces belong to the government of Kurdish-administered northern Iraq, which is pushing for Kirkuk to be incorporated into the Kurdistan region. The plan to deploy peshmerga troops has therefore provoked controversy among minority groups in Kirkuk Governorate, which is under the control of the Baghdad government and outside the current Kurdish region.
According to Yawir, the deployment can begin as soon as there is a final green light from Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. It remains uncertain when that approval might come. But in the meantime, the proposal is being received with mixed opinions in multiethnic Kirkuk Governorate. Jawad al-Janabi, a member of the Kirkuk Governorate Council and a representative of the predominantly Kurdish Kirkuk Brotherhood List, said that if peshmerga forces are deployed to Kirkuk, they will succeed in implementing security plans for the region.
"If we recall when the city of Kirkuk was liberated [with the toppling of the Saddam Hussein regime in 2003], for six months during the presence of peshmerga forces there, we had a very good security situation, and people were able to come and go, even after midnight," al-Janabi says. "These forces are Iraqi before being Kurdish; they are sons of the Iraqi people," he continues. "They are regular troops, and will provide support for the security forces in the [Kirkuk] governorate."
But leaders of Kirkuk's other two largest ethnic groups, the Turkoman and Arab communities, disagree. Hassan Toran, a representative of the Turkoman group in the Kirkuk Governorate Council, says any deployment of peshmerga forces to Kirkuk should only be carried out with the agreement of all parties, and warned that the details of the planned deployment remain obscure.
"Some say that they are to protect the pipelines and power lines between Kirkuk and Baiji. And some say that they are to protect the Governorate of Kirkuk," Toran says. "I believe that this should be done only with the agreement of all the parties in the Governorate Council. Whether they agree or not, the subject should be open to discussion because it is a matter that concerns more than one ethnic group or one [party] list; it concerns the whole of Kirkuk Governorate."
Muhammad Khail, a member of the Arab group in the Governorate Council, says any protection force should be composed of all the groups that form the governorate's social fabric. "The [Kurdistan] regional government intends to bring 6,000 peshmerga to Kirkuk, but I believe that this will not solve the problem," he says. "There is a sufficient Iraqi Army [presence] in Kirkuk. They can form units. Why are the other units not being given the proper role in defending Kirkuk in a proper way?"
Khail recalls hearing of the formation of security units from other ethnic groups, such as Turkomans or Arabs, but he says he does not believe that such groups can solve Kirkuk's problems. "They need to form a security force for the national defense of Kirkuk. A national force can obtain information prior to an event, and that's what's important," he says.
Kirkuk, which also has communities of Chaldean Assyrians and Christians, is some 250 kilometers north of Baghdad. The city has seen devastating car bomb attacks, mostly aimed at either of the two main Kurdish political parties in northern Iraq, and repeated sabotage of power lines and the oil pipeline. If the peshmerga deploy to the province, it will not be the first time Kurdish forces have been sent to help secure areas outside the three Kurdish-administered provinces of northern Iraq. Three battalions of peshmerga were sent to Baghdad in March to help with security in the capital.
Labels: Kirkuk, Major General Jabbar Yawir, Peshmerga, Turkomen
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Peshmerga to protect power towers
Security
(VOI) - The Iraqi Kurdistan region's government is ready to send 12,000 Kurdish Peshmerga troops (Kurdistan national guard) to protect power towers, the spokesman for the peshmerga said on Sunday. "We're waiting for the approval of the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki," Jabbar Yawir, the undersecretary of the ministry of Peshmerga affairs, said.
He said "we are in agreement with the central government in Baghdad to send 6,000 troops to protect power facilities on the Taza-Baiji highway. "He pointed out that the central defense ministry in Baghdad has asked the Iraqi Kurdistan government in a meeting in Erbil, the region's capital, earlier in July for dispatching 6,000 Peshmerga soldiers to protect the oil pipeline in the district of al-Shurqat, 80 km south of Mosul, which leads to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
The Kurdish 2nd Brigade Commander, Anwar Hama Amin, had said on Saturday that Kurdish Peshmerga forces will be deployed in several areas of Kirkuk to protect power towers and oil installations. "Bringing the Peshmarga to the province is part of an agreement and a protocol signed between the General Commander of the armed forces, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and the President of Iraqi Kurdistan region, Masoud Barazani," said Amin in a press conference held on Saturday at the military training base of K1 in Kirkuk.
The Kurdish 2nd Brigade Commander, Anwar Hama Amin, had said on Saturday that Kurdish Peshmerga forces will be deployed in several areas of Kirkuk to protect power towers and oil installations. "Bringing the Peshmarga to the province is part of an agreement and a protocol signed between the General Commander of the armed forces, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and the President of Iraqi Kurdistan region, Masoud Barazani," said Amin in a press conference held on Saturday at the military training base of K1 in Kirkuk.
Labels: al-Shurqat, Kirkuk, Kurdistan national guard, Major General Jabbar Yawir, Peshmerga, power towers, Taza-Baiji highway
Friday, May 11, 2007
Kurdistan sends troops to Iranian border
Security, Kurdistan
(AFP) - Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region has sent 1,000 peshmerga troops to its border with Iran to prevent attacks by the Islamist insurgent group Ansar al-Islam, a spokesman said on Thursday. Major General Jabbar Yawir said an Ansar-allied group calling itself the "Kurdistan Brigades of Al-Qaeda" has repeatedly attacked Iraqi Kurdish forces in the region around the border town of Penjwin.
Labels: Al Qaeda in Kurdistan, Ansar al-Islam, Iran-Iraq border, Kurdistan, Major General Jabbar Yawir, Penjwin, Peshmerga
