Iraqi forces seize Kirkuk from Kurds in bold advance

US-trained counterterrorism force seizes provincial govt HQ

BAGHDAD: Iraqi government forces captured the Kurdishheld city of Kirkuk on Monday, responding to a Kurdish vote on independence with a bold lightning strike that transforms the balance of power in the country.

A convoy of armored vehicles from Iraq’s elite US-trained Counter-Terrorism Force seized the provincial government headquarters in the center of Kirkuk on Monday afternoon, residents said, less than a day after the operation began.

A dozen armored vehicles arrived at the building and took up positions nearby alongside local police, residents said. They pulled down the Kurdish flag and left the Iraqi flag flying.

Prime Minister Haidar Al-Abadi ordered that the Iraqi flag be hoisted over Kirkuk and other disputed areas claimed by both the central government and the Kurds, who defied Baghdad to hold a vote for independence on Sept. 25.

Baghdad described the advance as largely unopposed, and urged the Kurdish security forces known as Peshmerga to cooperate in keeping the peace. The Peshmerga said Baghdad would be made to pay “a heavy price” for triggering “war on the Kurdistan people.”

A resident inside Kirkuk said members of the ethnic Turkmen community in the city of 1 million people were celebrating, driving in convoys with Iraqi flags and firing shots in the air. Residents feared this could lead to clashes with Kurds.

The overnight advance was the most decisive step Baghdad has taken yet to block the independence bid of the Kurds, who have governed an autonomous part of Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and voted three weeks ago to secede.

Kirkuk, one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse cities in Iraq, is located just outside the autonomous Kurdish zone. Kurds consider it the heart of their homeland and say it was cleansed of Kurds and settled with Arabs under Saddam to secure control of the oil that was the source of Iraq’s wealth.

State TV said Iraqi forces had also entered Tuz Khurmato, a flashpoint town where there had been clashes between Kurds and mainly Shiites of Turkmen ethnicity.

The “government of Al-Abadi bears the main responsibility for triggering war on the Kurdistan people, and will be made to pay a heavy price,” the Peshmerga command said in a statement, cited by Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani’s assistant Hemin Hawrami.

There were signs of internal conflict among the Kurds, who have been divided for decades into two main factions, the KDP of regional government leader Barzani and the PUK of his longtime rival Jalal Talabani. Both parties control their own Peshmerga units.

While Barzani’s KDP strongly supported the independence referendum, some PUK figures were more circumspect.

Monday’s Peshmerga statement accused a group within the PUK of “treason” for assisting Baghdad’s advance. “We regret that some PUK officials helped in this plot,” it said.

The status of Kirkuk and fate of the Kurds were left unsettled 14 years ago when a US-led invasion toppled Saddam.