Kurd VP accused of Iraq ‘insult’
IRAQ: A Baghdad court issued an arrest warrant for the vice president of Iraq’s autonomous northern Kurdish region yesterday for saying Iraqi forces had ``occupied’' the disputed province of Kirkuk this week.
However, the warrant against Kosrat Rasul is unlikely to be executed as the central government in Baghdad has no enforceable authority in the Kurdishad-ministered north.
The court accused Rasul of ``insulting’' Iraq’s armed forces, which is forbidden by Iraqi law.
On Tuesday, Iraq’s federal forces, supported by Iraniansponsored militias, rolled into the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, forcing Kurdish militias, known as the peshmerga, to withdraw.
The Kurds took over the city in 2014 when Iraq’s army melted ahead of the Islamic State’s blitz.
Isis has since seen its hold on Iraq and north Syria crumble in the face of relentless airstrikes by the United States-led coalition and an array of forces battling it on the ground. At its peak it held a third of both countries. In Kirkuk, residents were coming to terms yesterday with the handover of the city back to Baghdad authorities. Many felt the two leading Iraqi Kurdish parties had betrayed their people and had ordered the peshmerga to pull back with hardly a fight.
Jumaa Khalaf said she felt ``humiliated’' by the two parties over the withdrawal.
``They trampled on the dignity of the peshmerga,’' she said.
Many Kurds are wary of the Shi’ite-led militias that helped Iraqi forces retake the city. The Popular Mobilisation Forces, as they are known, are predominantly Shi’ite and backed by Iran, and seen by Kurds as agents of Arab and Shi’ite-first policy.
PMF commanders held a press conference in Kirkuk on Thursday, despite orders from Baghdad not to enter the city, further provoking fears of ethnic strife.
Yesterday, there were only a handful of PMF vehicles among a dominantly federal police and security presence inside Kirkuk.
The city felt calm, apart from sporadic reports of looting. The United Nations said more than
60,000 people fled the city on Tuesday, fearing clashes and leaving homes empty and unguarded. Later, thousands returned.
Another Kurdish resident, Hassan Anwar, said he was disturbed to see photos of Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani burned. ``I feel like it’s my father’s photo that’s been burnt.’'
The Kurds make up a portion of the multi-ethnic Kirkuk’s 1.2 million residents, living among Arabs and Turkmen.
Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, spokesman for Iraq’s armed forces, said the military would redeploy to all areas it controlled before the rise of Isis.
The Kurds have already withdrawn from most areas in northern and eastern Iraq that they took during the war against the jihadis. In the battle against Isis, the Kurdish forces fought on the same side as the Iraqi military and the PMF. Both the Kurds and Iraq’s central government are military allies of the US.
Yesterday, tensions ran high along the main road between the Kurdish regional capital, Irbil, and Kirkuk. Peshmerga fighters on Thursday took up positions about
5km beyond their initial lines, regrouping to defend the town of Altun Kupri. Iraqi forces established their own positions about
1.6km away. Brigadier-General-Raad Baddai said the town would be ``the last area’' his forces will retake north of Kirkuk.