BAGHDAD: Iraqi lawmakers said they have failed to defuse tensions over the disputed city of Kirkuk in informal talks, on the eve of a special Parliament session on the issue. Kurdish demands to annex the oil-rich-city of Kirkuk to their semiautonomous region in Iraq’s north have set off ethnic tensions.
More than 1,000 Sunni Arabs and Turkomen held a peaceful protest yesterday in the town of Hawija, west of Kirkuk, to protest the demands. The dispute has emerged as a huge threat to the Shiite-led government’s efforts to heal the country’s sectarian rifts and prevent a new cycle of violence. The Parliament’s session today will try to resolve a power-sharing disagreement in Kirkuk which has blocked legislation that would set the stage for US-backed provincial elections.
But Kurds fiercely oppose a legislative proposal that would equally divide the seats on the province’s council among the city’s ethnic groups. Prominent Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said “no agreement” was reached yesterday but stressed the informal talks would continue.
Othman blamed Arabs and Turkomen for seeking authority to name and appoint members of the provincial council — a move that would lessen Kurdish dominance in the 41-member panel.
Meanwhile, Iraq said yesterday that its military backed by US forces had arrested hundreds of suspects during an offensive aimed at stamping out Al-Qaeda in a restive central province. “Our forces have arrested 265 suspects so far during our operations in Diyala,” Maj. Gen. Mohammed Al-Askari, spokesman for the Defense Ministry, told AFP.
The raids have taken place throughout Diyala province where 50,000 Iraqi soldiers and police began a major push against insurgents on Tuesday to secure the volatile region. “The operation is still ongoing successfully and is now in its fifth day,” Askari said.
The US military said yesterday it has released more than 10,000 detainees in Iraq so far this year — more than in all of 2007 — as it seeks to scale back its operation of prisons in Iraq. About 21,000 people remain in custody in Iraq.
