PUK official demands new Iraqi-Kurdish joint command in Kirkuk

A member of the Kirkuk Provincial Council (KPC) stated on Wednesday that the Iraqi security forces in Kirkuk are unable to provide security and safety to residents and called for establishing a joint operations command with Iraqi forces, Peshmerga, and other Kurdish security agencies.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A member of the Kirkuk Provincial Council (KPC) stated on Wednesday that Iraqi security forces in Kirkuk are unable to provide security and safety to residents and called for establishing a joint operations command of Iraqi forces, Peshmerga, and other Kurdish security agencies.

“The people of Kirkuk are concerned,” said senior KPC member Almas Fazil in a press conference.

She accused Iraqi forces in the province of “random shootings, storming into peoples' homes, not protecting Kakayi villagers in Daquq, and not providing security inside Kirkuk city.”

Fazil, also a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), claimed that the recent “killing of an elderly Kurdish woman and child in Kirkuk shows us that forces now present in the city cannot sufficiently provide security and safety to the people.”

She revealed that she had been part of a complaint issued in court against Iraqi forces about the killing of the two civilians and said she hoped that a committee that came from Baghdad to Kirkuk to investigate the deaths would reveal its results to the public and punish those responsible.

The Kurdish KPC official emphasized that members of the Kakayi religious minority group have faced a serious threat by remaining members of the Islamic State (IS) in Kirkuk's Daquq district, stating the Iraqi forces there have failed to protect them.

Fazil strongly urged the establishment of a joint operations command comprised of Iraqi forces, Peshmerga, and other Kurdish security agencies as the only way forward to effectively bring stability back to the area.

In another part of the press conference, she referred to the current acting Governor of Kirkuk Rakan Said as “ignorant” for failing to do his responsibilities and represent all the ethnic and religious components of Kirkuk Province.

In an interview with Kurdistan 24 following the press conference, Fazil said, “Da’esh (IS) militants freely enter Kakayi villages in Daquq and kidnap people with Iraqi forces failing to protect those areas."

She also remarked that the Kurdish council members' job has lately been a "daily" battle to prevent the systematic replacement of Kurdish directors and officials in the province.

Following the Oct. 16 attack and military takeover by Iraqi forces and Shia militias, Peshmerga were pushed from Kirkuk and other disputed territories. Since then, the security situation in those areas has deteriorated considerably.

Kurdish officials charge that Kirkuk is witnessing a campaign of demographic change with the intention of reducing the number of Kurds, who make the majority of the province’s population.

Shakhawan Abdulla, a Kurdish member of the Iraqi Parliament from Kirkuk, recently reiterated the importance of installing forces more invested in maintaining security there.

“When a foreign force,” unguided by locals, Abdulla told Kurdistan 24, attempts to provide security for a particular region, “they can’t protect it.”

Peshmerga officials over the past few months have repeatedly warned about the re-grouping of IS in Kirkuk and surrounding areas currently under the control of Iraqi forces and Shia militias.

Editing by John J. Catherine