By Cernig
Yeah, yeah, the Surge reduced violence - so now can we have reconcilliation and a pony?
Apparently not.
Buried in the latter half of an AP report about US forces detaining three more suspected extremists comes this fun news:
Witnesses in Mosul, meanwhile, said Kurdish troops reinforced their positions at Iraqi government buildings in the city's northern al-Arabi district, deploying fighters to rooftops despite an order from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to vacate the area.
"We've seen an intensified presence of peshmerga (Kurdish militia), and their numbers have increased along with armored vehicles," one resident said on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals. He said government troops also had increased their patrols.
The recent fighting in Mosul has been mainly to quash al-Qaida in Iraq militants, but the city also suffers from tension between Kurdish and Sunni Arab factions.
The discord stems largely from lopsided political representation in local government, which is dominated by Kurdish parties and their allies even though Arabs hold a slight majority in Mosul's province, Ninevah. Sunni Arabs boycotted the last provincial elections in 2005.
Mosul's deputy governor, a Kurd, denied Tuesday that Kurdish fighters were in a standoff with government forces.
"We are national political parties participating in the government and not fighting its forces," deputy governor Khisro Koran said. "We support the government and its security measures so that we are not excluded."
And so that they're not excluded, apparently, they're not standing down even when ordered to by the prime minister. That's really supporting the government!
My guess is that this ties in to the whole question of what happens with Kirkuk and other areas the Kurds want control over. There was supposed to be a deal reached and announced by now, according to experts who have talked to Kurdish leader Barzani and the UN, but nothing has publicly appeared yet. And, for example, June 1 was the deadline passed by the Kurdish-controlled Tamim provincial government for a settlement before citizens can "take matters into their own hands."
I think this situation across the Kurdish North bears watching as the next potential powderkeg "no-one could have anticipated".
Cernig, the entire Iraq discussion has become so absurd I gave up writing about it. ( plus you do a really good job so why should I bother?) Iraq is going to blow up sooner or later and everbody, with the possible exception of chimpy himself, knows it. The Bush administration is just hopping it's later - like when Bush is safely retired to his sage brush farm in Texas - so they can blame it on someone else. A Democrat would be better but St John will be just fine thank you very much!
ReplyDeletethe surge working and laura bush didnt kill her boyfriend -- the whole situation in iraq is completely out of controlled - but tightly controlled by bushco. it will unravel and i feel it will unravel under a President Obama
ReplyDeletebush will ride off into the sunset