Kurds Hesitant to Send
Troops to Baghdad
Ilnur Cevik - The New Anatolian - Erbil
09 January 2007
Iraqi Kurds are advising
caution over news that they will be sending troops to Baghdad to help American
troops and Iraqi forces to reclaim control of Baghdad's neighborhoods, which are
in turmoil due to sectarian violence.
American press reports said that President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime
Minister Nuri Kemal al-Maliki agreed on a plan to end the violence, which
threatens to plunge the country into civil war. The plan calls for the
deployment of five new American combat units with a force of around 20,000
troops to be sent to the Baghdad area to end the sectarian violence instigated
by Shiite Arab militia linked to the Muqtada Sadr group.
The plan also calls for the deployment of three Iraqi units in the Baghdad area
to match the American deployment. Prime Minister Maliki's spokesman has said two
units will come from the Kurdish peshmerga forces and one from the Shiite. The
reports also said Democratic congressional sources opposed the plan and had
serious misgivings about the deployment of Kurdish forces in the Baghdad area
because they were not sure if the Kurds should show up in the Iraqi capital and
were truly committed to ending sectarian fighting.
The plan will certainly put Bush on a direct collision course with Congress,
which is controlled by the opposition Democrats. Congressional Democratic
leaders wrote a letter to Bush asking him to start a phased withdrawal of the
American troops in Iraq my May 2007. Even some Bush administration officials as
well as U.S. military leaders reportedly feel the plan is doomed to failure.
Kurdish official sources in the Kurdistan Regional Government told The New
Anatolian the reports should be taken with caution. "We will not deploy any
peshmerga forces in Baghdad. The peshmerga forces are a special force that will
only be used to protect the Kurdish region. However, we may send troops as part
of the Iraqi army to be deployed in Baghdad only if the Iraqi parliament
officially makes such a request and our Kurdish Regional Parliament approves
it," a leading official in the Kurdish government told the TNA. He asked not to
be named.
He also said the Kurdish government wants the role of the Kurdish forces to be
clearly defined before they can approve such a mission.
Kurdish officials have been discussing the possibility of including Kurdish
soldiers in the Iraqi army ranks. Prime Minister Necirvan Barzani of the
Kurdistan Regional Government discussed the issue with Maliki in Baghdad last
month. The TNA learnt that the issue came up when the share of the Kurdish
region in the Iraqi fiscal year budget was discussed. The Kurds are supposed to
get 17 percent of the Iraqi budget. However, they have complained that the
central government in Baghdad is cutting defense and security expenses of Iraq
from the general budget and then handing out 17 percent to the Kurds. The Kurds
say they are undertaking the mission to defend and secure northern Iraq so they
too should receive a share of the defense and security budget.
According to information received by TNA Maliki has said the Baghdad government
would be prepared to give more share of the budget to the Kurds if they
participated in the Iraqi army.
It is not certain whether Maliki took up the issue with the Kurdish leadership
but sources say Kurds have been promised massive funds to participate in the
force in Baghdad and will eventually agree to send their troops as part of the
Iraqi army to quell sectarian strife in Baghdad.
