The Kurdish paper, Hawlati, reported that deep divisions have surfaced
among the leadership of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) that
could lead to serious consequences for the party and its leader Mr.
Talabani.
More
A bomb hidden
near the Baghdad home of Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari was discovered and
defused Sunday, police said. In July, gunmen had opened fire on a car
belonging to Zebari killing one official and wounding two others. He was not
in the
vehicle at the time, reported AP
An Arab
Islamic group said it had assassinated the chief of police in Arbil and
warned to kill Kurdish leader Barzani. "This is a clear message to the ally
of the Jews, the agent Massoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic
Party, to tell the scoundrel that we are coming and the hands of the
mujahideen will soon reach you, God willing, and America cannot help you,"
said the statement which was dated Sunday, reported Reuters
Two Turkish soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit a land mine in
Northern Kurdistan, reported the state owned news agency Anatolia. Also,
Anatolia said four soldiers were injured in a land mine explosion near the
city of Amed.
In an
official visit to Washington, the Kurdish PM Nechirvan Barzani arrived
in Washington late last week to explain his administration's stance on
several important issues regarding Southern Kurdistan and Iraq, a KDP
official told the Kurdistan Observer today.
More
A member of the
Turkoman Front political group was assassinated today in Southern Kurdistan
while driving his children to school, police said. Col. Burhan Taha said
politician Ghafour Abu Bakr was killed at 8.30am (local time) in Kirkuk when
unknown attackers opened fire, killing him and slighting injuring his two
children, reported Reuters yesterday.
----------------
Iraq's Christians who are
increasingly targeted by insurgents, are fleeing Baghdad for the safety of
the Southern Kurdistan, reported AP.
----------------
The US military said three soldiers, a marine
and a civilian translator were killed and one soldier wounded in two car
bombings on Friday, one in the northern city of Mosul and another near the
city of Qaim on Iraq's border with Syria. Also on
Saturday, a Kurd working
for the education ministry was shot dead in Mosul, reported AFP.
----------------
Kurdistan
Democratic Party is planning to launch a new satellite TV channel in
Southern Kurdistan. The new station, which will be called Zagros TV, will
start its broadcasting programs on November 1 of this year.
The KDP
leader Massoud Barzani began a three-day visit to Syria on Friday. Barzani,
who arrived form Jordan, said he would discuss a number of subjects with
Syrian leaders. They included federalism in Iraq, relations between the two
countries and the question of Kirkuk, reported AFP
Oct
15, 2004
•
News Snapshot
Syrian regime have arrested
three Kurds, human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni said on Thursday. "Military
security arrested three Kurds in the town of Amuda as part of the clampdown
linked to the fatal riots that took place last March in the northeast, he
said, repeating his call for political prisoners to be freed, reported AFP
----------------
A
representative of the PUK says that his party is prepared for an armed
struggle to ensure Kirrkuk’s Kurdistani identity. “We and the KDP share the
same view regarding this issue,” Sadon Faili, the PUK spokesperson in
Baghdad told daily Al-Hayat, referring to the culturally-stirred conflict of
Kirkuk, reported Peyamner
"I've been
doing grave sites for a long time, but I've never seen anything like this:
women and children executed for no apparent reason," said Mr Kehoe, who
spent five years investigating mass graves in Bosnia for the International
Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia.
More
Leyla Zana finally received
the European Parliament's Sakharov prize for human rights Wednesday after
being released in June from a decade in Turkish detention
----------------
According
to the Turkish daily paper Aksham, the Turkish president warned Barzani not
to follow the Isreali path, adding that Israel is the source of conflict
since it was established. Aksham also reports that Mr Barzani was told that
neither Turkey nor the neighboring countries will accept federalism that
would lead to an independent Kurdistan, and if Kurds go this way, they will
likely lose what they have achieved so far.
Massoud Barzani said that the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in Southern Kurdistan
had a Kurdish "identity" and vowed to fight any force attempting to oppress
its people, whether Kurds or other ethnic groups.
More
Turkey will face a
very stringent inspection mechanism on human rights and cultural freedoms
(read that as "Kurdish rights)." Additionally, if there are any unfortunate
developments concerning the military's influence in politics and foreign
relations -- like military intervention in a neighboring country -- the
negotiations will be suspended immediately, said
TDN columnist Gunduz Aktan
----------------
A German
delegation from the Baviera State visited Amed, Northern Kurdistan. The
delegation's Chairman Gabriel Goltz said they came to Amed to observe the
services given by the local authorities and the developments in the
villages, directly.
In a joint press
conference in Irbil with the British Foreign Minister Jack straw who arrived
in Irbil on Tuesday, the Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said "Our
policy and stance is clear, we refuse to compromise on any grounds regarding
Kirkuk," refuting the speculations that UK puts pressure on the Kurdish
leaders to make concessions on Kirkuk.
In a second day of
demonstrations in the Kurdish city of Kirkuk, protestors brandished banners
calling for the departure of the Arabs and the return of Kurds chased from
their homes as part of Saddam's efforts to change its population makeup.
Demonstrators also called for the departure of loyalists of the old regime
they accused of blocking the return of displaced Kurds.
----------------
A Turkish
soldier and a Kurdish rebel were killed in Northern Kurdistan, Turkish
state news agency Anatolia reported Sunday.
In several Kurdish cities
across Southern Kurdistan, tens of thousands of Kurds demonstrated,
demanding an independent Kurdistan with Kirkuk as its capital.
----------------
A Turkish soldier was killed
and three others were wounded Saturday in fighting with Kurdish fighters in
Northern Kurdistan, the Anatolia news agency reported.
----------------
The newly appointed Secretary General of KDP
in Eastern (Iranian) Kurdistan, Mustafa Hijiri, says that his party has
detailed information about Al Qaida training camps in Iran. "We have
detailed intelligence reports on the training locations of members belonging
to Al Qaida and Ansar al Islam organizations," Hijiri said in an interview
published by Kurdish daily Medya.
Peshmerga Prevents Arab Terrorists From
Crossing Into Eastern Side Of Mosul
Insurgents take fight north and spread
fear among Kurds
By
Charles Glass in Suleimania
The
Independent
13 November 2004
With American forces claiming to have subdued
most of Fallujah, insurgents have moved their rebellion to Iraq's third-largest
city, Mosul, and other cities in the north. In Mosul, they attacked American and
Kurdish positions and Iraqi police.
Yesterday US troops and Iraqi National Guards
recaptured some of the police stations in Mosul that insurgents seized on
Thursday. The death of one American soldier was reported yesterday, and US
helicopters mounted several raids.
But witnesses in Mosul said insurgents were
entering the city in truckloads from Tel Afar and Fallujah. Iraq's Deputy Prime
Minister, Barham Saleh, said: "In Mosul, we were expecting the terrorists to
leave Fallujah and create a second front. They will open many other fronts."
Sadi Ahmed Piri, a senior official of the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, said by phone from Mosul: "They [the insurgents]
control eight police stations. I think you can say 60 per cent of the police are
with them."
Insurgents burnt US military vehicles and
seized weapons and bullet-proof vests from police stations. Iraqi interim
government sources said the interior ministry had dismissed Mosul's police chief
for not controlling his men. Rebel tactics in Mosul differed from attacks on
police posts in other parts of Iraq, where they executed police after taking
their weapons. In Mosul, witnesses reported, they allowed police to join the
rebellion or to go home. Kurdish Peshmerga units of the Iraqi National Guard
fought to prevent the mainly Arab insurgents from crossing the river Tigris and
threaten the eastern, Kurdish quarter of the city. Mr Piri and other Kurdish
officials said some insurgents belonged to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid wal
Jihad, whom the US said it drove out of Fallujah. He claimed the rest were
former Baath party members.
"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.
Insurgents have ignored the curfew imposed by
Mosul's governor on Wednesday, and they were holding many of the positions they
captured on Thursday. Sources in Mosul said the violence has increased tensions
among the city's diverse communities of Arabs, Kurds, Turcomans and Christians.
Many Kurds and Christians have fled the city for refuge in the relative security
of the northern zone of Iraq administered by the two main Kurdish parties, the
Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
"We have to be very careful," Mr Saleh said.
"The terrorists are determined to incite civil war through ethnic and sectarian
sensitivities." The Kurdish parties are the main allies - "collaborators", the
insurgents say - of US forces. Many Kurds fear that fighting in Mosul, 250 miles
from Baghdad on the border of the Kurdish autonomous region, could spread to the
Kurdish areas.
Most Kurdish students at Mosul university have
left because of the fighting and intimidation by Arab students and staff. The
law student Aso Hashim told the independent Kurdish daily Hawaliti
(Citizen): "I went to Mosul to study law, but I faced racist treatment from
teachers, other students and the police." He said the atmosphere had changed
when he returned to the university this autumn. "We didn't feel secure. I
couldn't even speak with my Kurdish colleagues in Kurdish."
Many Kurdish students have gone to Erbil, the
Kurdish regional capital. Some Christians are also leaving the city, some to the
Kurdish region and others to Syria. The influx of Iraqi Christians into Syria,
diplomats said, was a contributing factor in making Syria the only country in
the region with a growing Christian population.
The US military said its troops assaulted the
southern parts of Mosul on Friday, and small-arms fire and rocket-propelled
grenades forced two American Cobra helicopters to make an emergency landing. One
soldier was reported killed.
