Three Kurds were killed and 16 wounded Saturday in Iraq during rival demonstrations in Kirkuk, a multi-ethnic city in the north of the country where the authorities have imposed a curfew after several days of tensions.
Of the three people who died, two were shot in the chest and the third in the head, Kirkuk medical authority director Ziad Khalaf told AFP. One man was 21 years old and the other two were 37 years old. The wounded - 16 according to the new assessment - were hit by "shooting, stone throwing or glass," Khalaf said, adding that three members of the security forces were hit.
Ziad Khalaf had previously indicated that among the wounded were both Kurds and Arabs. On Saturday, rival demonstrations bringing together Kurdish residents on one side and Turkmen and Arab protesters on the other degenerated into violence, despite the presence of security forces. Deployed to act as a buffer between the two sides, the security forces fired warning shots to force the Kurdish demonstrators to disperse. Several vehicles were set on fire on a main avenue, according to an AFP correspondent.
" READ ALSO Renaud Girard: "Resumption of the nuclear game in the Middle East"
In the evening, Prime Minister Mohamed Chia al-Soudani called for "the formation of a commission of inquiry to elucidate the circumstances in which a citizen was killed." He pledged in a statement "to hold accountable (...) to all those who prove guilty of these events." For nearly a week, tensions have been simmering in Kirkuk, a city historically disputed by the federal power in Baghdad and the authorities of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, in the north.
On Monday, protesters from the Arab and Turkmen communities staged a sit-in near the headquarters of the Iraqi security forces in Kirkuk province, after reports that the Iraqi prime minister had ordered security forces to hand over the site to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which once occupied it. On Saturday, Kurdish demonstrators mobilized in turn in the late afternoon and tried to reach the headquarters, according to the AFP correspondent.
'Curfew'
In a statement, Mohamed Chia al-Sudani on Saturday night ordered "the establishment of a curfew in Kirkuk and the organization of extensive security operations to comb areas shaken by riots". In the evening, the sit-in organized by the Arabs and Turkmen continued in front of the headquarters, while in another sector of the city the Kurdish demonstrators were still mobilized. The local police chief, General Kawa Gharib, was trying to appease them.
Despite uneven relations, the government of Mohamed Chia al-Soudani has been relatively successful in recent months in warming relations between Baghdad and Erbil, the capital of autonomous Kurdistan. Speaking by phone with leaders of autonomous Kurdistan, Mohamed Chia al-Soudani and historic leader Massud Barzani agreed on the need to work together "to defeat those who seek to undermine the security and stability of Kirkuk.
»'Refrain from violence'
In 2014, the KDP and the Peshmerga, the security forces of autonomous Kurdistan, briefly took control of the oil-rich region of Kirkuk. But they were expelled in the fall of 2017 by federal troops, in retaliation for a Kurdish independence referendum that ended in failure. Attacking the demonstrators of the opposing camp in his first reaction, the historic Kurdish leader Massud Barzani had accused "rioters" of blocking with their sit-in the highway linking Kirkuk to Erbil, "creating a tense and dangerous situation for the inhabitants".
«
It is surprising that the security forces (...) have failed in recent days to prevent chaos and illegal behavior of those who cut off the road, while today violence has been used against Kurdish youth and demonstrators," he lamented.
His son Masrour Barzani, Prime Minister of Iraqi Kurdistan, called on the head of the federal government in Baghdad to "intervene immediately to control this unacceptable situation". He also urged "Kurdish citizens persecuted in Kirkuk to exercise restraint and refrain from violence."