MOSUL, -- Far from the volatile Shiite rivalries
that have shaken Baghdad and Basra, this city has been devastated by an epic
struggle for land and power between Sunni Arabs and Kurds that has shattered
the social fabric and could very well shape the future boundaries of northern
Iraq.
Kurds say that they have been driven out of the city by Sunni Arab militants
and criminal gangs, who have set off car bombs and kidnapped and killed
members of their ethnic group. In turn, Kurdish forces have been accused of
carrying out assassinations in Mosul and torturing Arab detainees elsewhere in
the campaign to annex territory to the semiautonomous Kurdistan region.
The Iraqi government and U.S. military spokesmen blame
the chaos on Al Qaeda in Iraq, a loosely organized Sunni Arab insurgent group,
which desires to create a new base in the north. But the problems date to
2003, when the Kurds first sent fighters into Mosul, and the status of the
city's Arab elite was diminished.
"Mosul became a real battlefield between Sunni Arab insurgents and
Peshmerga [Kurdish fighters] before Al Qaeda in Iraq really became much of
a factor up there," said Wayne White, head of the U.S. State Department's Iraq
intelligence team from 2003 to 2005.
"The Sunni Arab population up there knows the Kurds have designs on areas well
beyond their current area of control in Nineweh [province], and are doubtless
determined to push back," he said.
The Kurds believe Mosul's northern and eastern suburbs were wrongfully
appropriated by Saddam Hussein's Sunni Arab regime. They also contend that
they are the rightful owners of the Sinjar region in the western part of the
province. The sought-after territories are believed to contain oil reserves.
Since late 2004, Kurdish security forces have seized de facto control of the
disputed lands. The Kurdistan regional government's flag, a tricolor with a
yellow starburst, flutters across northern Nineveh, and soldiers from
neighboring Kurdistan are posted at dozens of sentry posts on roads.
Arabs rarely venture into northern Nineveh these days, even if they have
Kurdish friends who fled Mosul, the provincial capital.
"It's easier for Arabs to go to Syria and Jordan," said Juneid Fakhr, a
retired archaeologist.
The Kurds want a referendum, called for under Article 140 of the Iraqi
Constitution, to formally annex the disputed areas to Kurdistan. The
referendum, postponed last year after the Iraqi government failed to conduct a
census in the contested north, would also determine the status of the city of
Kirkuk and other areas along the border of Kurdistan. A vote could prove to be
the trigger for greater Arab-Kurdish bloodshed or a bridge to conciliation and
prosperity.
"If it is a good solution that is packaged properly and people understand the
ramifications of their voting, it could all be much to do about little," said
Brig. Gen. Tony Thomas, the No. 2 U.S. commander in northern Iraq. "If it's
poorly packaged and there is a run on the bank in any regard and there are
loopholes, Article 140 could cause more friction and aggression than had
existed here before."
The Kurds argue that the referendum would be the remedy to the competition in
Nineveh and throughout the north.
"After Article 140, there will be no Arab-Kurdish problem," said Nineveh's
deputy governor, Khasro Goran, a Kurd who is viewed as the most powerful
political leader in the province.
Both sides portray themselves as the sufferer. Goran, who has survived seven
assassination attempts, charges that the Kurdish ambitions have provoked a
systematic campaign against his people.
"The Kurds have been the victim. More than 3,000 Kurds have been killed since
November 2004 in Mosul, and 60,000 have fled Mosul," he said. "These attacks
are to scare people not to support the Kurdistan regional government in case
of a referendum."
In turn, Sunni Arabs argue that the Kurds' domination of the provincial
government and military has played into the hands of radical Sunni militant
groups.
"The majority of people in Mosul believe that the Kurds want to take over
Mosul," said Sunni provincial council member Hassan Thanoun Alaf, who is with
the Iraqi Islamic Party. "When Arabs and Kurds are on good terms, then Al
Qaeda will not find support [in Nineveh] -- especially among the tribes."
Alaf hopes that provincial elections, tentatively scheduled for Oct. 1, will
give the Arabs real power in the government. Kurds dominate the province's
government because of a Sunni Arab boycott of Iraq's first post-Hussein
elections in January 2005.
Although the Americans downplay the chances of civil war in Nineveh, they
recognize that the Kurds are on a mission to expand Kurdistan's borders after
centuries at the mercy of various Arab, Turkish and Iranian regimes.
"They never had any geographic boundaries, so right now it's still going to
play out," Brig. Gen. Thomas said. "They are one of these irrepressible
forces," going after what they think is their God-given right. "We should stay
out of the middle because we will be played one way or the other."
Despite such wishes, U.S. officials recognize that their dependence on the
Kurds may have tipped the balance of power in favor of their longtime ally.
The Americans relied on Kurdish forces to stop Sunni fighters from seizing
Mosul in November 2004, and the influx of Kurdish fighters allowed Kurdistan
to cement its grip on Mosul's northern and eastern outer rings. Veterans of
the Kurdish security forces also form the backbone of the main Iraqi army
division in Mosul.
"The hard part for us and what we are trying to sort through is the battle
space of '05 and '06, when Mosul fell the first time," Thomas said. "The Kurds
came down in a big way. We pretty much supported that because there wasn't
anyone else to go to."
Such tactics helped push Sunni Arab's who had been Iraqi military officers to
join insurgent groups. Senior security officers in Nineveh acknowledge that
their former army colleagues, dismissed by the Americans in 2003, are the ones
fighting them. Even the Arab-dominated police force has struggled with
infiltration.
"These things happen in Iraq," said Wathiq Hamdani, until recently the acting
provincial police chief. "My friend is now my enemy."
The U.S. Army has led a new drive to recruit former Arab officers to join the
post-Hussein Iraqi army, but the city's bloodshed has not abated.
The friction between Kurds and Arabs is on full display in Mosul's police
jail. Abdullah, a balding man dressed in a black shirt and pants, spent more
than two years at Akre prison in Kurdistan before being transferred back to
Mosul last summer. Kurdish security forces raided his house in January 2005 in
the Mosul suburb of Zumar, one of the contested territories that the Kurds
hope to annex.
At Akre, he says, he was shocked with electricity and sodomized with a broken
bottle. Abdullah is unsure what he will do if he is freed. He doesn't believe
he can return to Zumar. "Where I live now, Kurds control everything," he said.
His brother, who still lives in the town, agreed that the Kurds dominate life
there, particularly the Kurdistan Democratic Party, or KDP.
"The KDP controls security and government offices. Anyone who wants to get
employed needs a recommendation from the party," Abdullah's brother, who asked
that his name not be used for fear of harassment, said by phone. "Yes, they
prefer Kurds over Arabs."
Publicly, the Americans say they are not aware of any abuses committed by the
Kurds against Arabs, but one U.S. official who formerly worked in Iraq
acknowledged that the Kurds carried out targeted killings in Mosul against
suspected fighters terrorizing their community.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed to the
assassinations as proof of the Kurds' military discipline, comparing Kurdish
fighters favorably to Shiite security forces in Baghdad who have been accused
of indiscriminately killing and arresting Sunni Arabs.
"When Kurds get killed in Mosul, Kurdish special operations/intelligence units
surgically go after that person" who did the killing, the former official
said. "It's not collective punishment, but they will go and kill that
individual. . . . The Kurds are very responsible about it."
If actions of the Kurdish security force provoke Arabs, they make Kurds feel
safe.
Ibrahim Faris Aziz fled Mosul for the suburb of Bashiqa in mid-2004 after his
son was killed by a car bomb and a gunman shot a fellow mechanic. He keeps in
touch with a few favorite Arab customers through friends who still venture
into Mosul, but mainly his feelings are negative. "Three-quarters of Arabs are
bad," he said.
He hopes Kurdistan annexes Bashiqa.
"They are protecting democracy. The terrorists won't come here as long as the
Peshmerga are here," he said. "Security is the most important thing."
