Posted on 02/26/2015 7:20:30 AM PST by HomerBohn
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Incidents in Kirkuk, where bodies of Islamic State (ISIS) fighters were dragged through the streets, have shocked many in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The incidents happened after ISIS attacked oil fields and installations in and around Kirkuk on Friday, making use dense fog that hampered air strikes by the US-led coalition. In surprise attacks on three fronts, dozens of Peshmerga were killed, among them two Kurdish generals.
The situation in the oil-rich city, which has a mixed population under a chosen Kurdish governor, became so dire that armed neighborhood guards joined police and the Kurdish Asayish security forces, while civilians also grabbed their weapons and set out for the front.
The attack, which also involved a car bomb outside the main Kirkuk police station in the town center and ISIS fighters holing up in an abandoned hotel, was repulsed with heavy loss of life, and at least 17 Peshmerga taken captive.
Soon after, photographs appeared on social media of cars dragging bodies of ISIS fighters through the streets of Kirkuk, in some cases accompanied by civilians with Kurdish flags celebrating their victory. There are unconfirmed reports that a vehicle belonging to the Kurdish security police was involved in the incidents.
Kirkuki professor and former Peshmerga Shwan Khurseed witnessed one of these acts and condemned it there and then. “This is very bad for the Kurds,” he sighed, when reached by phone. “These are backward people. At least 80 percent of the Kurds do not agree with this.”
Khursheed said he thinks that personal loss had set people to actions like the stoning by an old woman of an ISIS fighter’s body, a picture of which was also shared through social media. “But that does not make it acceptable,” he said.
Safeen Dezaye, spokesman of Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani’s office, condemned the “inhuman treatment of bodies in spite of whose they are and what they may have done.” He said it was unacceptable that ISIS’ cruelty was copied this way.
While other pictures of decapitated ISIS bodies cannot be confirmed to have been taken in Kirkuk the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), whose armed wing took part in the fighting in Kirkuk, called on sympathizers “to avoid such acts, as it does not serve our cause.”
As the Kurds are fight ISIS with the support of the US-led coalition, the incidents have caused worry among Kurds that this could affect their standing with the Americans and could backfire. The coalition air support has been essential in beating ISIS back from the territories it captured over the past several months. Kurds feel they are fighting a battle for the rest of the world, as no countries have sent in combat troops.
The Kurdish Ministry of Peshmerga only just released an official order to all its units, prohibiting the mistreatment pictures of any ISIS prisoners or their dead bodies, saying they should be treated ethically. Since the beginning of the war, hundreds of pictures of dead ISIS fighters have been posted on social media.
Sam Morris, a research fellow at the Erbil-based Middle East Research Institute (MERI), spoke of “very worrying signs from Kirkuk.”
Since the Peshmerga had no presence inside Kirkuk, they were not involved in the incidents, he said. “There were local people who joined the local Asayish and Federal Police. Some of these would be from the 'groupi pishtiwani,' which are informal local armed groups,” he commented.
He added that, if reports of an Asaiysh vehicle being involved are correct, then it was even more worrisome. Morris called for a condemnation by the Kurdistan Region’s authorities to prevent such acts from happening again.
Morris saw the incidents as a sign of worsening inter-communal dynamics in Kirkuk: the relationship between Kurds and Sunni Arabs in the city is low.
Most Kurds blame Sunni Arabs and internally displaced people (IDPs) who have taken refuge in Kirkuk for the worsening security situation. There is a constant fear of “sleeper cells” in the Arab community that has led to a complete lack of trust of all Sunni Arabs. Conversely, the Sunni residents are now terrified of the Kurds and Asayish, which controls security in the city.
Kurds in Kirkuk are vulnerable because of their past eviction from the city during the Arabization campaigns of Saddam Hussein. Many of them only returned after the fall of the Iraqi dictator in 2003, and now feel threatened by the ISIS offensives, as the group also has many of Saddam’s former officials and fighters in its ranks.
Meanwhile, many were enraged by the proclamations of Mulla Shwan, a local Kurdish Muslim preacher from Erbil who joined ISIS. In videos just before Friday’s attacks, he warned that he and a band of Kurdish converts to the ISIS cause were on their way to Kirkuk to kill all unbelievers and punish the main Kurdish parties there.
>>It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it. -Robert E. Lee<<
First off, I find it strange a feller from the North would quote the honorable Robert E. Lee. Gen. Lee would not have condoned dragging dead soldiers in blue uniforms through the streets.
Secondly, war is ugly, horrific, but what sets civilized humans apart from barbarians is despite the horrors of war, human decency still reigns at the end of the day. Lotsa ways to kill a man, but after death, desecrating the dead is sadomasochistic and evil. Abusing prisoners, torturing and cutting off heads, burning caged men alive is beyond the pale.
Our creator, God Almighty will not hold folks blameless for such psychopathic behavior...even in war.
51 David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.
When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. 52 Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath[f] and to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron. 53 When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp.
54 David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem; he put the Philistine’s weapons in his own tent.
55 As Saul watched David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is that young man?”
Abner replied, “As surely as you live, Your Majesty, I don’t know.”
56 The king said, “Find out whose son this young man is.”
57 As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine’s head.
58 “Whose son are you, young man?” Saul asked him.
David said, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”
Will we be dragging progressive corpses through the streets, or will we just shoot, shovel and shut up?
[Yeah, sometimes the only way to respond to barbarians is with barbarism. It’s the language they speak.]
Exactly. A proposal I would like to see more of is the Mercenary Army...no national identity. Punishment for some head ISIS fighters captured would be to be put in a pen where wild pigs (that have not been fed for awhile) are then released. Extra credit would be given if the pigs were sows and not boars.
The story of course would be that the Jihadists went pig hunting [somewhat like bull fighting] and lost.
they’re moslems. The ones I know personally, I stay far away as possible. I don’t turn my back to any.
It is my prayer that moral equivalentits receive what they have earned in misery and horror.
Pity we don’t have adults in the White House.
Why that’s pretty cool. Attempting to use God’s word to justify satanic behavior.
I guess in your book, it was ok for the muslims to drag ambassador Stevens and those defending our embassy through the streets, sodomizing his corpse and video taping it?
Pretty neat-o to see that fella dying as he suffering being burned to death. Pretty sure it made the Almighty very proud.
Strange dayz were livin in.
Right? I heard the other day an interesting lil factoid.
Do you know why they call the U.S. Marines...leathernecks?
You prolly already guessed it.
Muslims around the Barbary Coast would highjack vessels and use this type of blade to sever the heads of those they captured....hence leathernecks. The Marines back then wore leather around their necks to aid in keeping their heads.
Thought that very interesting. Here we are in 2015 and the muzzies are still severing heads for fun.
Yes, so much has changed since then.
Of course people will tell me it’s only a couple crazies ruining it for everyone else, and that they have friends that are moslem. They’re all normal and when they go for pizza they each eat their own kind.
That kind of attitude is going to get us all killed.
I’m going to go strap on some leather now heh.
Good site! I will bookmark-but man, the hand-wringers in the comments section!
Ya, I did that last year.. Gave me Emmer, who promptly voted for Bonehead.
The comments are indeed scary.
Even as scary is the way the ‘moderators’ here chop articles posted to one excerpted sentence! This practice seems to grow and, even with the contributions I and others send in to Mr. Robinson, one must wonder if this website will stand.
Rome wasn’t built in a day...
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.