KurdistanObserver.com

Sectarian Protest Rocks Key North Iraq province

By Nabil Nourredin

MOSUL, Iraq, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Angry Sunni Arabs protesting the removal of a top police official have threatened to topple the provincial government of Nineveh as sectarian tensions flare in the volatile northern Iraqi province.

Several hundred armed protesters, chanting slogans against what they say is Kurdish domination of Nineveh's regional administration, besieged government offices in the provincial capital of Mosul late on Saturday and were kept from overrunning the building by U.S. troops, local officials said on Sunday.

Sunni Arab groups in Nineveh, which has a mixed population of Arabs, Kurds and other ethnic groups, had demanded the reinstatement of Arab provincial police chief Ahmed Mohammed al-Jibouri, who was sacked following allegations of corruption.

Saturday's demonstration, which saw both civilian and police protesters firing into the air in downtown Mosul followed a joint statement by leaders of dozens of local Sunni Arab tribes.

They said in a letter to Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari that allegations against Jibouri were not sufficiently investigated and his sacking was based on ethnic and political grounds.

"If you intend to approve this dismissal, you can expect to hear that the province has fallen into our hands within 24 hours," the letter said.

Residents of Mosul said the situation in the city appeared calm on Sunday. A police official said Jibouri remained in his office, but was planning to return to his home outside the city later in the day.

Mosul, Iraq's third largest city about 400 km (250 miles) north of Baghdad, lies near some of Iraq's richest oil fields and has a history of sectarian strife.

Arabs accuse Kurdish leaders, whose autonomous region of Kurdistan lies just outside the city, of packing Mosul with Kurds. The Kurds deny this.

Anger rose during this month's referendum on a new U.S.- backed constitution for Iraq, which passed despite a large "No" vote in Sunni Arab areas, including the Sunni-dominated provinces of Salahaddin and Anbar.

Despite its large Sunni Arab population, Nineveh ended up with only 55 percent of voters against the charter -- depriving opponents of the two-thirds majority "No" in three provinces needed to block passage of the measure nationally.

Jibouri told supporters on Saturday he was being pushed out by Kurds and Arab Shi'ites who wanted to sow chaos in the province before parliamentary elections on Dec. 15 and thereby suppress the Sunni Arab vote.

"They want to gain control over Mosul and make it weak and that will push Salahaddin and Anbar to the same catastrophic fate to prevent the people of these provinces from participating in the coming election," he said.