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Shiite Militias Move Into Oil-Rich Kirkuk, Even as Kurds Dig In

Apr 25, 2006 9:11 am By Rebecca Bynum

As Secretary Rice prates on about how the Iraqi government must respond to the “legitimate aspirations the Iraqi people,” the facts on the ground are solidifying. From the Washington Post aka, the Bandar Beacon.

KIRKUK, Iraq — Hundreds of Shiite Muslim militiamen have deployed in recent weeks to this restive city — widely considered the most likely flash point for an Iraqi civil war — vowing to fight any attempt to shift control over Kirkuk to the Kurdish-governed north, according to U.S. commanders and diplomats, local police and politicians.

Until recently, the presence of the militias here was minimal. U.S. officials have called the Shiite armed groups the deadliest threat to security in much of the country. They have been blamed for hundreds of killings during mounting sectarian violence in central and southern Iraq since the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in February.

The Mahdi Army, led by firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, has sent at least two companies, each with about 120 fighters, according to Thomas Wise, political counselor for the U.S. Embassy’s Kirkuk regional office, which has been tracking militia activity. The Badr Organization, the armed wing of Iraq’s largest Shiite political party, has also boosted its presence and opened several offices across the region, military officers here said…

The fate of oil-rich Kirkuk — Iraq’s third-largest city with about a million residents and sizable ethnic Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen communities — has been a pivotal and divisive issue since long before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Iraq’s constitution, endorsed in nationwide balloting in October, calls for a referendum on the future of the region by the end of 2007, but many key details are in dispute, such as who will be permitted to vote.

Kurdish leaders speak openly of their intention to use force if necessary to gain control of the city, which they consider the historical capital of a vast Kurdish nation also extending into Iran and Turkey. During the rule of President Saddam Hussein, Arabs brought in from elsewhere in Iraq displaced thousands of Kurds. As many as 300,000 Kurds who were pushed out have returned to the area, according to U.S. estimates, establishing vast settlements on the outskirts of the city and making them its largest ethnic community. Kurds also occupy most of the top provincial political and security jobs…

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