Commenting on the latest atrocities against the Kurds by the Arab terrorists
in Kirkuk and Mosul, Barzani and Talabani warned that they will not stay
silent while those crimes are unfolding daily
Now, with Mosul threatening to turn to chaos after most of the city's 4,000
police deserted, the Kurds are again proving staunch allies. "They're well-organised,
fierce and get the job done," said Captain Robert Lackey, a company
commander with the U.S. Stryker Brigade, which is responsible for northern
Iraq.
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News Snapshot
Talabani, Barzani and have revealed that they have reached an agreement with
Iraqi political parties to postpone elections
in Kirkuk which was
planned to be held next January until the issue of Kurdish settlement
resolved.
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Turkish FM Gul criticized Talabani and Barzani for their demand that local
elections in Kirkuk be postponed until the issue of Kurdish settlement
resolved. "They are not the ones who will decide. They might have some
demands as Iraqi citizens; however, they cannot decide when elections will
take place. There is a council in Iraq and it will decide on it. That the
election is held on a designated date is crucial."
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Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan told US Vice President Cheney that the
operation against terrorists in Falluja has caused outrage in Turkey and the
Muslim world, reported Turkish Daily News yesterday.
American warplanes flew over Arab parts of the city, and some units of the
American Task Force Olympia ventured out of their base on patrol. An
insurgent unit crossed over to the mainly Kurdish west of Mosul and attacked
offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Three of the four
attackers were killed, and the fourth was wounded.
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"The
Peshmergas captured five and killed eight," Mr Piri said. "The five captured
did not carry identity cards, so we do not know yet whether they are Iraqi."
The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Saleh, said the rebels were trying "to
destabilise Mosul" and "to prevent elections" scheduled for January.
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Iraq plans to build an oil refinery in the Kurdish north near the borders with
Turkey and Syria, a senior Kurdish official and oil
industry sources said.
Senior Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) official Nechirvan Barazani said the
refinery would be situated in the Kurdish town
of Zakho, on a pipeline that pumps Iraqi oil to Turkey. "A specialist American
company will build the refinery," Barazani said,
adding that the proximity of the pipeline would make it easier to transport
Iraqi oil to the new facility.
A source in Iraq's state-owned North Oil Company said that plans for the
refinery, around 500 kilometres north of Baghdad,
had been in the works for around six months. Both declined to name the US firm
or say how much the project would cost. It
was also not clear when construction would begin or what the capacity of the new
refinery would be.
The refinery will be situated in the Kurdish town of Zakho
There are at least eight oil refineries in Iraq, which has world's second
largest oil reserves and capacity to refine 350,000 bpd.
None are situated in the Kurdish north, which relies on the rest of Iraq and
Turkey for refined oil products. Most Iraqi
refineries now operate below capacity, ravaged by 13 years of economic sanctions
and war damage.
Since last year's US invasion, sabotage by insurgents bent on undermining the
government has also hampered efforts to
overhaul refiniries. The largely autonomous Kurdish north, which effectively
broke from Baghdad in 1991, has seen less
violence in the past year than other parts of the country.
