KurdistanObserver.com   Kurdish Legislator Says Kurdish Troops Might Be Sent To Secure Kirkuk The Associated Press Tuesday, July 17, 2007 BAGHDAD: A Kurdish legislator called on the government Tuesday to take action against insurgents around the northern city of Kirkuk, saying those who carried a bloody attack a day earlier had fled from Diyala province where U.S. and Iraqi forces are conducting military operations. Khaled al-Shawani also told parliament that talks are going on between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the central government in Baghdad about sending Kurdish troops to the oil-rich city to protect it from further attacks. Kirkuk is an ethnically mixed city between mainly Kurds, Arabs and Turkomen and a referendum on its fate is scheduled to take place before the end of the year. Kurds want to annex it to three northern provinces where they have a semiautonomy, a move rejected by Arabs and Turkomen. "There are talks between the regional and central governments to send about 6,000 Kurdish guards to areas around Kirkuk to prevent any terrorist from coming in," al-Shawani The Associated Press after the parliament meeting. The government "should immediately carry out some military operations in some areas around Kirkuk where the terrorists have fled after ... operations in Diyala," al-Shawani said. He called the government to compensate the victims. The presence of Kurdish troops there — even if nominally under Iraqi army control — could enflame ethnic tensions. A deadly bombing in the city killed Monday about 80 people and wounded scores. All but one of the victims died when a massive truck bomb exploded near the Kirkuk Castle and the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the party of President Jalal Talabani. It was the deadliest attack in Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad.         Copyright © 2002, Kurdistan Observer