Iraqi army raids Kurdish neighborhood in Kirkuk

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – The Iraqi Army on Thursday night raided several homes in the Newroz neighborhood of Kirkuk and arrested three Kurds in the neighborhood, according to Kurdistan24 reporter Soran Kamran.

The detainees were released the same night.

A resident of the Newroz neighborhood told Kurdistan24 “This has been a Kurdish neighborhood for more than 21 years. They [Iraqi Army] came to occupy our houses.”

"The Iraqi army threatened to hand us over to intelligence agencies," one of the detainees told the media after his release, adding that the armed forces “mishandled” them.

The Kurdistan24 reporter also added that the Iraqi forces said that they had an order from the country’s Ministry of Defense to evacuate the houses, with a large force being deployed to the neighborhood.

Later in the night, after the effort of Deputy Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament Shakhawan Abdullah, some of the forces withdrew from the neighborhood.

Kirkuk has been a battleground state during the recent provincial elections in Iraq, with Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen all vying for control.

Earlier in August 2023, Shiite protestors blocked the main road from Kirkuk to Erbil after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani notified the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) that they were to hand over certain offices for the return of the KDP. Kurdish counter-protests ensued, and four Kurds were shot dead, drawing strong condemnations from Erbil.

Kirkuk, along with parts of Diyala and Saladin provinces, have been a disputed territory between the Kurds and the Iraqi government for decades. Per the Iraqi Constitution’s Article 140, the status of these areas had to be decided by the local population in a referendum following the de-Arabization process by no later than 2007.

Editing by Dastan Muwaffaq