Iraqi forces reclaim Kirkuk from Kurds
Serious setback for hopes of independence
KIRKUK • Iraqi forces seized the contested city of Kirkuk from Kurdish forces almost unopposed Monday, in a stunning reversal of fortunes for Iraq’s Kurds.
The loss of the city and its nearby oilfields is a massive blow to dreams of independence for the Kurds, who last month held an independence referendum in anticipation of entering secession talks with Baghdad.
Civilians and federal troops pulled down Kurdish flags around the city.
Kurdish Gov. Najmaddin Karim, who had stayed at his post despite being dismissed by Baghdad weeks ago, fled to Irbil, the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish zone.
Revellers waving Iraq’s national flag and the flag of its Turkmen minority flooded central Kirkuk in an evening celebration. But it was the Shiite sectarian chants heard above the din of the rally that underscored the coming political battles between Iraq and its Kurdish region.
Iraqi forces were supported — as they always are now in major operations — by the country’s Popular Mobilization Forces, a predominantly Shiite militia coalition that the Kurds see as an instrument of Iranian policy.
In their bid to keep Kirkuk and its oil-rich countryside, Kurdish leaders whipped up fears that the central government in Baghdad is dominated by Tehran and would oppress Kurds if they recaptured the ethnically mixed city.
The Kurdistan regional government’s security council reported that “Iraqi forces and Iranianbacked Popular Mobilization Forces” attacked in “a major, multi-pronged operation” that deployed “U.S. military equipment, including Abrams tanks and Humvees.”
Most Peshmerga forces withdrew from the contested city without fighting, after Baghdad issued an ultimatum to pull back to pre2014 positions.
Long columns of armoured vehicles and pickup trucks filled with Kurdish fighters withdrew from positions around the city Monday, jamming roads already crowded with fleeing Kurdish civilians who said they felt abandoned.
“They cheated us and we’ve been betrayed,” Kawa Mustafa Mohamed shouted from his car as he and his family waited in heavy traffic to leave the city. “I don’t know where I’m going now but my father was killed by the Iraqis and I don’t want that to happen to my family.”
Left behind were disorganized bands of enraged Kurdish gunmen who vowed to defend the city. “Only us volunteers fought, not the Peshmerga,” said Hardi Farouk, a 27-year-old in bleached blue jeans clutching an AK-47 assault rifle in south Kirkuk.
The prospect of a new civil war in the ethnically mixed city is a potential boon for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former British Army officer now advising the Kurdish Peshmerga, said: “The greatest evil everywhere is ISIL. It’s the defeat of Islamic State that is key. The trouble is, people in Iraq believe the fight against ISIL is over, and that it’s focused in Syria, but there are still pockets in Iraq.”
The Foreign Office in London last night urged “calm on all sides.”
Kurdish forces have controlled Kirkuk since 2014, when federal forces abandoned their defences ahead of an ISIL advance across northern Iraq. The city is 32 kilometres outside the Kurds’ autonomous region in northeast Iraq.
Since then, the Kurds have exported oil from Kirkuk fields — some 350,00 barrels of oil per day — a critical contribution to their economy since Baghdad stopped budget payments to the region following a dispute over oil revenues in 2015. In recent weeks, Baghdad stepped up demands for the return of Kirkuk and its oilfields after the Kurds held a disputed referendum on independence, which also included Kirkuk.
To the Iraqi central government, that looked like a provocation that underscored what it sees as unchecked Kurdish expansionism. The city of more than one million is home to a mix of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, as well as Christians and Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
Haider Al Abadi, prime minister of Iraq, said the military operation was in the interests of Iraqi citizens: “We assure our people in Kurdistan, and in Kirkuk in particular, that we are keen on their safety and best interest.”
The U.S., which has armed, trained and provided vital air support to both sides in their shared struggle against the Islamic State group, described Monday’s events as “co-ordinated movements, not attacks,” while bemoaning the dispute as a distraction against a common enemy. It said the limited exchange of fire was a “misunderstanding.”