Posted on 06/14/2014 9:42:32 AM PDT by xzins
After a decades-long dispute between Arabs and Kurds over the oil-rich northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, it took just an hour and a half for its fate to be decided.
As al-Qaida-inspired militants advanced across northern Iraq and security forces melted away, Kurdish fighters who have long dominated Kirkuk ordered Iraqi troops out and seized full control of the regional oil hub and surrounding areas, according to a mid-ranking Army officer. He said he was told to surrender his weapons and leave his base.
"They said they would defend Kirkuk from the Islamic State," said the Arab officer, who oversaw a warehouse in the city's central military base. He asked that his rank not be made public.
The Kurdish takeover of the long-disputed city came days after the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and other Sunni militants seized much of the country's second largest city of Mosul and Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit before driving south toward Baghdad. Their lightning advance has plunged the country into its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. troops.
A spokesman for Kurdish forces, known as the peshmerga, said they had only moved in after Iraqi troops retreated, assuming control of the "majority of the Kurdistan region" outside the semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government.
"Peshmerga forces have helped Iraqi soldiers and military leaders when they abandoned their positions,"
A lawmaker from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led bloc condemned the peshmerga's move, calling it a "plot" carried out in coordination with the regional government that would "lead to problems."
"The Kurds have taken advantage of the current situation. They seized Kirkuk and they have other plans to swallow other areas," Mohammed Sadoun told The Associated Press.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbn.com ...
I'm guessing that will mean that Obama opposes them.
The Kurds have been the closest to allies that the US has had from the beginning in Iraq.
I’m guessing that will mean that Obama opposes them.
wondering when the kurds would begin to act. good for them.
If I were a betting man, I certainly wouldn’t bet against you.
The Kurds have been a thorn in the side of Iraq, Turkey and Iran and that’s a good thing.
Good and quick thinking. Maybe the Kurds could skool Zer0 in the benefits of positive actions in the interest of the nation.
One of the many political dances GWB had to perform was to promise Turkey and Saudi Arabia that he would not establish or allow to be established a Kurdish state. Such a state would destabilize Turkey, which has a substantial and oppressed Kurdish minority. I’m not sure what Saudi Arabia’s objection was. It seems, however, that Kurdish state is forming on its own. It may become the main post-Obama US ally as I believe they are anti-Iranian, anti-Turkish and pretty much anathema to Sunni’s and Shia. (If anybody could elaborate on the politics of this I’d be grateful.)
I also suspect that Israel will aid such a Kurdish state, which would give them a huge technological leg up on the surrounding Arabs and Persians.
We have screwed them over many times. I hope don’t this time.
Each day seems to be bringing us closer to Iraq being divided into 3 states as per your long time comments from year’s ago.
Turkey won’t like that
“The Kurds have been the closest to allies that the US has had from the beginning in Iraq.
I’m guessing that will mean that Obama opposes them.”
Herr Obozo, the Sunni WonDoer might order air strikes against the Kurds to protect his Sunni Brothers, ISIS serial killers.
After a decades-long dispute between Arabs and Kurds over the oil-rich northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, it took just an hour and a half for its fate to be decided. As al-Qaida-inspired militants advanced across northern Iraq and security forces melted away, Kurdish fighters who have long dominated Kirkuk ordered Iraqi troops out and seized full control... "They said they would defend Kirkuk from the Islamic State," said the Arab officer, who oversaw a warehouse in the city's central military base. He asked that his rank not be made public.
“The Kurds have been a thorn in the side of Iraq, Turkey and Iran and that’s a good thing.”
My Israeli friend told me Mossad have been assisting the Kurds for many years.
Nobody's really sidled up to the Iraqi Kurds because (a) the leadership is a slippery bunch and (b) Iraqi Kurdistan is surrounded by Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey. Can't get to it without the consent of one of its hostile neighbors (hostile to us or hostile to Iraqi Kurdistan). Same problem we have with Afghanistan.
Obama is the anti-christ.
This is their moment. They won’t get a better chance.
They need to define their territory and take control of it right now. I believe that is what they will do, and are doing. Circumstances are allowing them to do it, and circumstances are forcing them to do it.
The anti-Christ would not go golfing at such a critical time.
Ergo, it sounds like a great place for an Israeli re-fueling stop on the way to and from Iran...
Un seen is a similar swath north of the ISIS swath that includes both Syrian Kurds and Iraqi Kurds.
They are now just Kurds
Go Kurds!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.