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Fighting erupts in Kurdish city
Violence has broken out in and around the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk between ethnic Kurds and Turkmen tribesmen with at least nine deaths reported.
The fighting began on Friday night in the nearby town of Tuz Kharmato, 180 kilometres (110 miles) north of Baghdad, reportedly over the reopening there of a Turkmen religious shrine.
The unrest spread to Kirkuk on Saturday with gunmen exchanging gunfire and grenades in the streets.
US forces and local police have been struggling to regain control.
"We're worried about the situation, but we are working with city leaders and officials to resolve it," said Lieutenant Jonathan Hopkins of the US 173rd Airborne Brigade.
"Democracy is coming to them, but they are still in the process of absorbing it. You can compare it to what the United States was like in the 1850s."
Loud explosions could be heard in the city during the day.
Two of those killed reportedly died when US soldiers opened fire during a Turkmen demonstration.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3176965.stm
Ohoh. Wat gaat het Turkse leger nu doen?
Nu ook gevechten gaande in Zuid-Oost Turkije:
Clashes between Turkish forces, Kurdish militants leave at least two dead
Two Kurdish guerrillas were killed and nine Turkish soldiers were wounded on Friday during clashes in Turkey's southeast, local media reported.
Fighting was still raging between the Turkish military and scores of Turkish Kurdish militants in the mountain terrain of Turkey's Batman province, some 80 kms from the border with Iraq, news channel CNN Turk said.
Ankara has been hunting hundreds of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas it says are returning from northern Iraq to Turkey after the U.S.-led war toppled Saddam Hussein this year. (Albawaba.com)
http://www.albawaba.com/headlines/TheNews.php3?action=story&sid=256875&lang=e&dir=news
In Noord-Iraq:
Another 3 Killed In Turkmen-Kurds Violence
KIRKUK, Iraq, August 24 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Another Three Turkmen were shot dead by police in this northern Iraqi oil-rich city on Saturday, August 23, in the second consecutive bloody clashes between Turkmen and Kurdish peshmerga that left on Friday, August 22, eight dead on both sides.
The three Turkmen were gunned down after they opened fire on a police building during a demonstration, said Kirkuk Governor Abdul Rahman Mustafa.
"Elements seeking to destabilize Kirkuk... exploited the peaceful demonstration and opened fire on the police building without any justification, prompting the police to return fire," Mustafa told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"This led to the killing of three of the demonstrators," he said, adding that three policemen, including an officer, were also wounded.
Irsan Kirkuly, a Turkmen member of the city's local council, earlier told AFP that three Turkmen were arrested during the protest and three cars, including a police vehicle, were destroyed.
The fighting began on Friday night, August 22, in the nearby town of Tuz Kharmato, 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of Kirkuk, reportedly over the reopening there of a Turkmen religious shrine, the BBC News Online said.
But Kahya Galib, a member of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, told AFP that the fighting in Tuz Khurmatu broke out after unidentified elements fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a Shiite religious site revered by Shiite Turkmen residents.
Ten Turkmen and three Kurds were injured in Friday clashes, said Tuz Khurmatu's Kurdish mayor Mohammad Rashid Mohammad.
U.S. soldiers also killed two Turkmen during a demonstration in Tuz Khurmatu Friday, a U.S. military spokesman said.
Tuz Khurmatu was sealed off by U.S. troops Saturday, said an AFP reporter on the site.
Colonel Bill Mayville, commander of U.S.-led occupation forces in Kirkuk, met with representatives of all communities in the multi-ethnic city -- which is home to Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen and Assyrian Christians -- in an effort to restore calm.
"The situation is now secure in the town," Mustafa said, after most residents had rushed to their homes and shop-owners shut their stores.
About 200 Kurds protested outside the Kirkuk government building last Sunday demanding that they be incorporated within the province.
Tensions have risen in Tuz Khurmatu as the Kurds have demanded that the town be transferred to the Kurdish-majority governorate of Kirkuk from the Arab-majority province of Salahuddin, in which it currently lies.
A Turkmen representative in the Kurdish city of Arbil, Jawdat al-Najar, said the clashes in Tuz Khurmatu were provoked by "those who don't want stability in Iraq."
Turkmens rap US, urge Turkey to send troops to Iraq
ANKARA, Aug. 25 — A senior member of Iraq's Turkmen ethnic minority accused the United States on Monday of failing to protect his community and urged Turkey to send troops to help restore order in the war-devastated country.
Twelve people were killed over the weekend in clashes between Kurds and Turkish-speaking Turkmens in and around the northern Iraqi oil hub of Kirkuk. The two groups have been vying for power in the city since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
''The United States pledged to bring peace and democracy to Iraq...(But) we see that the Turkmens have been ignored and that peace has not been established in Iraq,'' Ahmet Muratli, Ankara representative of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, told reporters.
The Turkmens, whose presence in Iraq dates back to Ottoman Turkish rule, complain of persecution by Kurds returning to Kirkuk after being expelled under Saddam.
Muratli, speaking after talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, said Turkey had a vital role to play in Iraq.
''We regard the dispatch of Turkish troops to Iraq as appropriate. This is the only way peace and order can be ensured in Iraq,'' he said.
Ankara, watched by anxious financial markets, is currently weighing up a U.S. request to contribute troops to Iraq.
Turkish public opinion opposes such involvement, but the government is anxious to repair ties with Washington, damaged by Turkey's refusal in March to allow U.S. troops to attack Iraq from its territory.
If Turkey sends troops, they are expected to be deployed in an area near Baghdad rather than in northern Iraq, where the United States fears they might clash with the Kurds.
Turkey, which wants to suppress Kurdish separatism within its own borders, is worried about the growing influence of Iraq's Kurds.
Underscoring such concerns, nationalist Turks clashed with police on Sunday while protesting over the Kirkuk incident outside the Ankara offices of a northern Iraqi Kurdish party. Twenty three Turkish police were injured in those clashes.
On Monday, Foreign Minister Gul said Ankara was in close contact with the United States over the situation in Kirkuk.
''We cannot accept the treatment meted out to the Turkmens in the last few days,'' Gul said.
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters08-25-035032.asp?reg=MIDEAST