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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Kurdish Turnout For Polls Could Be As High As
80%: Pachachi
AFP - Dec 17, 2004-On January 30, voters will choose 18 provincial councils
while Kurdistan will elect 111 deputies to a regional parliament, which was
created in 1992 in defiance of ousted president Saddam Hussein.
The political parties are aware that many would-be voters need first to be told
how to vote, rather than for whom they should cast their ballot.
In the north of the country, Kurdish parties called for the election to be
delayed until the complex ethnic makeup of the oil city of Kirkuk could be
established.
Some 1,500 people demonstrated in the city on Thursday, calling for the vote to
be boycotted unless the ethnic situation created by Saddam could be resolved.
Saddam encouraged Arabs to settle in the city and forced many of the city's
Kurdish population to leave.
Kurdish parties want Kirkuk city to be incorporated into their autonomous region
as its capital.
Announcing his candidacy for an election that is seen as a key test for his
US-backed interim administration, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi vowed to work
towards national unity.
"We strongly reject the injustice and separation of the past," he said, calling
the election "the precious dream stolen by tyrants".
In the Sunni-dominated areas of the north, appeals for a boycott outnumber
others: "The election -- it is only an American game", state banners and
graffiti.
"I am expecting turnout of between 70 and 80 percent in Kurdish areas and 80
percent in the (Shiite) south, but I fear it will be 10 percent or less in other
areas like Al-Anbar province," a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of the capital,
warned Sunni elder statesman Adnan Pachachi.
