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Kurdish official condemns Iraqi army raid
on Peshmerga HQ
24.8.2008
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August 24, 2008
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan region "Iraq", —
A representative of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan's (PUK) secretary general on Sunday
condemned an Iraqi army raid on the headquarters of
the Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Qurat Tabba,
describing the act as one of the "blunders" of the
Iraqi army.
"On Saturday, Iraqi army forces entered the
headquarters of Kurdish parties in Qara Tapa areas,"
Mahmoud Sankawi told VOI.
"We have informed the deputy prime minister, Dr
Barham Saleh,www.ekurd.net
of the incident and
submitted a memorandum to the prime minister in
which we explained that the Peshmerga forces are not
Mahdi army militia groups…," Sankawi noted.
The Mahdi army is the military wing of the Sadrist
movement, which is led by Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr
and holds 30 seats in the 275-member parliament.
Political tensions erupted between Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki's government and the Mahdi Army
following a military operation by Iraqi forces in
Basra and Baghdad's eastern city of Sadr in May with
the aim of tracking down armed groups and outlaws.
Sankawi added that Saleh held a meeting with the
minister of defense, during which they agreed to
postpone the evacuation of governmental buildings,
which are currently occupied by Kurdish parties.
On Saturday morning, Iraqi army personnel raided the
headquarters of the PUK,www.ekurd.net
the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP) and the Kurdistan Communist Party,
lowering the flag of the Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG).
In cooperation with the Multi-National Force (MNF),
Iraqi forces have launched a wide-scale security
operation called Bashaer al-Kheir (Promise of Good)
in Diala province with the aim of eliminating armed
groups.
In the past three weeks, the operation included the
areas of Jalawlaa, al-Saadiya, and Qurat Tabba,
which is affiliated with Diala's Khanaqin district.
The central government has ordered Kurdish bodies to
hand over the security responsibility of Diala's
border areas to the Iraqi army and withdraw their
Peshmerga forces from those areas.
The Peshmerga brigade, comprising 4,000 troops, was
located in Diyala to protect the Kurdish civilians
in the district.
The Peshmerga is a term used by the Kurds to refer
to armed Kurdish forces (Kurdistan national guard).
Diala province extends to the northeast of Baghdad
as far as the Iranian border. Its capital is Baaquba.
It covers an area of 17,685 square kilometers (6,828
sq mi).
A large portion of the province is drained by the
Diala River, a major tributary of the Tigris.
Because of its proximity to two major sources of
water, Diala's main industry is agriculture,
primarily dates grown in large Date Palm groves. It
is also recognized as the orange capital of the
Middle East.
In January 2008 Operation Phantom Phoenix was
launched in an attempt to eradicate the remnants of
al-Qaeda network following the Diala province
campaign between 2006 and 2007.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, VOI
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