Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Occupation Iraq: The Next Civil War

And reason to stay, right?

"Kurdish coalition wins majority; foes make gains" by Yahya Barzanji, Associated Press | July 30, 2009

ERBIL, Iraq - Though the three provinces that make up the Kurdish north have remained largely violence-free, American military commanders have said friction between Arabs and Kurds is the greatest threat to security in the country.

The Kurds have been locked in a bitter dispute with Iraq’s central government over control of oil and land, particularly the city of Kirkuk. Separatist sentiment is high in Kurdistan, which gained limited autonomy after rising up against former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in 1991.

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And the neo-con plan to Balkanize the place continues apace.

Related
: P.J.A.K.

Plan B

"Bombings kill 12 in Iraq, reflect depths of political, ethnic gulfs" by Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Associated Press | July 31, 2009

BAGHDAD - Twelve people were killed in bombings in northern and western Iraq yesterday, including seven in a building used by a Sunni-backed political group in Diyala Province, police said. The violence is a reflection of the deep political and ethnic divisions that remain in Iraq despite the security gains over the past 18 months.....

Daily attacks have continued throughout Iraq, but the US military warns that the greatest threat to the country’s security is tension between the Kurdish-ruled north and the Arab-majority central government. The two sides have clashed over disputed oil and land in the north.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq will visit the capital of the semiautonomous Kurdish region, Irbil, on Sunday, a little over a week after the Kurds held important presidential and parliamentary elections, state TV reported. Yesterday’s first blast hit Baqouba, the provincial seat of Diyala that lies northeast of Baghdad, killing at least seven and wounding 10 people, said Major Ghalib al-Karkhi, a spokesman for the Diyala police. Other police and hospital officials confirmed the toll.

The bomb was hidden inside a building used by the Reform and Development Movement, a Sunni-backed political group founded last year that won four seats in the last provincial council elections....

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"Bombs at 5 Shi’ite mosques in Iraq kill at least 29; Despite attacks on sect, July’s casualties low" by Kim Gamel, Associated Press | August 1, 2009

BAGHDAD - A car bomb also exploded near an outdoor market in a Kurdish area in the disputed city of Kirkuk, killing at least two people, said Brigadier General Sarhat Qader, a local police officer.

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"Iraq’s Kurds and Arabs struggle to defuse tensions; Conflict could imperil US withdrawal" by Yahya Barzanji, Associated Press | August 3, 2009

DOKAN, Iraq - Iraq’s prime minister headed north yesterday to the self-ruled Kurdish region to defuse rising tensions and address a range of disputes that have poisoned relations and threatened to become a new source of the conflict for the battered country as US forces increasingly disengage.

The meeting came as six people died in bombings in Baghdad and western Iraq.

US officials have warned that Arab-Kurdish tensions could jeopardize security gains, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates offered US mediation help during his visit last month to Iraq. Gates traveled to Baghdad and the Kurdish city of Irbil on his trip....

The northern, self-ruled Kurdish region has enjoyed relative calm since the 2003 US invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, but rivalries between Kurds and Arabs have fueled attacks in nearby areas....

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