Iraq reclaims Kurdish-held oilfields
The two-day operation has dealt a quick blow to dreams of independence
BAGHDAD— Iraqi troops completed their takeover of all oilfields held by Kurdish separatists on Tuesday, in a push by the Baghdad government to secure control of all disputed areas claimed by Kurds and suppress their independence movement.
The swift military operation, aided by an agreement with a Kurdish faction to withdraw peacefully from the vital city of Kirkuk and surrounding oil-rich areas, dealt a blow to Kurdish dreams of independence from Iraq. The two-day takeover also strengthened the position of the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, who outmanoeuvred Kurdish leaders.
Kurdish fighters appeared to be in headlong retreat on Tuesday. A senior commander of Kurdish forces defending oilfields outside the city of Dibis, about 50 kilometres northwest of Kirkuk, said in a telephone interview that his troops had pulled out late Monday night as Iraqi troops closed in.
The commander, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak with journalists, said Kurdish forces, known as peshmerga, had received orders to leave Dibis from superiors in Irbil, the capital of the autonomous region.
Kurdish fighters and Iraqi government troops are both part of the U.S.led coalition battling Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, militants in Iraq. The United States has not interfered with the government assault on Kurdish-held areas. The coalition and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad urged both sides to avoid violence and focus on fighting the militants.
Kurds took over disputed areas adjacent to their autonomous region after Iraqi troops fled an assault by Daesh in 2014. Those areas were included in a referendum last month in which the Kurdish region voted overwhelmingly for independence, angering both Baghdad and Washington.
The United States condemned the vote, saying it would foment ethnic conflict, destabilize Iraq and undermine the fight against Daesh. Baghdad took steps to isolate the landlocked Kurdish region after the ref- erendum, with the help of neighbouring Iran and Turkey, and then launched the assault on oil-rich Kirkuk province early Monday.
U.S. troops were in the province but had no role in the fighting, said Col. Ryan Dillon, the spokesperson for the coalition in Baghdad.
The loss of the oilfields is devastating for the Kurdish regional government. Oil from Kirkuk province, pumped via a pipeline through Kurdish territory and into Turkey, has provided about half of the Kurdish region’s oil revenue. In all, the region has been pumping about 550,000 barrels a day, earning about $8 billion (U.S.) annually.
The Iraqi military’s triumph over the Kurds came as the coalition continued to battle Daesh militants clinging to a strip of desert land and the border city of Qaim, in western Anbar province near the Syrian border.
Iraqi forces, in some instances aided by Kurdish fighters, have steadily driven the militants from most of Iraq since they took over nearly a third of the country in 2014.
In Syria, the coalition said allied forces had driven the militants from most of the city of Raqqa, the capital of the militant’s self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria, and were closing in on the remainder.