Kurdish MP in Baghdad: There is a big political hand behind terrorism in Kirkuk
some non-Sunni Arab groups in Kirkuk assassinated them because they were afraid that al-Jibburi and al-Assi might have been a barrier to the plans that those groups intend to implement in Kirkuk, says Abdullah.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (K24) — Kurdish member of the Iraqi Security and Defense Committee in the Iraqi Parliament Shakhawan Abdullah told K24 "There is a big hand in terrorizing the leader of Arab Bloc in the Provincial Council of Kirkuk Mohammed Khalil al-Jibburi and Abdullah Sami al-Assi, another member of the council."
In a recent program of Basi Roj on K24 TV, Abdullah stated that "some non-Sunni Arab groups in Kirkuk assassinated them because they were afraid that al-Jibburi and al-Assi might have been a barrier to the plans that those groups intend to implement in Kirkuk."
Abdullah mentioned another motive behind the assassinations.
"That was the first aim, the second purpose of their assassination was to target Kurdish security in Kirkuk that now Kurds have almost full control over the province's security. By such actions, they want to undermine Kurdish security to show people that Kurds can't keep the province safe," he said.
In another part of the program, Kurdish MP stressed, "It is true that Khalil has made strict statements against Kurds and Kurdistan Region in the last 12 years, but Kurds never thought about assassinating anyone. Kurds have always believed in dialogue and negotiation for addressing the issues."
Abdullah also mentioned that in the past weeks, Khalil made some statements that angered and concerned other people outside of Kirkuk. "Khalil was asking to make a Sunni -Arab military unit in Kirkuk to protect Arab areas in the province hand in hand with Kurdish Peshmerga forces," he said.
"He talked about the threat of Shia expansion in the area which led to Khalil's assassination," he concluded.
On December 1, Khalil and his wife were shot in his car by some unknown militants in Kirkuk. Following the incident, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar Abadi called for the investigation of the case.
