Kurdish forces in Kirkuk raze Arab houses

iraqi Kurdish security forces moved in with bulldozers and excavators and demolished at least 100 homes in the Huzeiran neighbourhood of Kirkuk in the week after a deadly suicide bombing in October.

Arab residents have been displaced after Kurdish security forces tore down and blew up their homes in Kirkuk city. Hadi Mizban / AP Photo

IRBIL, Iraq // All along the street, houses have been reduced to rubble in the central Iraqi city of Kirkuk. The work of Kurdish security forces retaliating against Sunni Arabs after a recent ISIL attack, residents say.

Kurdish security forces moved in with bulldozers and excavators and demolished at least 100 homes in the Huzeiran neighbourhood of Kirkuk in the week after a deadly suicide bombing in October.

The destruction points to the dangerous divisions that threaten to ignite now that ISIL is losing its strongholds with the assault on its bastion Mosul further north.

Kirkuk, in north-eastern Iraq, is a particular flashpoint: it is split between Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen populations, each of which have historically claimed it as its own. During the fight against ISIL, the Kurds seized control of the city, located near a large oilfield, and have said they will keep it, opening a likely dispute with the central government and the other local populations.

“This is my house and this is my tragedy,” said one Arab resident of Huzeiran. The building that was once her family home now lies in ruin. She said Kurdish security forces came into the neighbourhood, labelled her building “confiscated” and ejected her family. They also took their identification documents, she said, speaking on condition she only be identified by her nickname Umm Ahmed for fear of retaliation.

Video from the neighbourhood showed dozens of destroyed buildings along several streets. Human Rights Watch documented at least 100 homes demolished there on October 23 and 24 by Kurdish security forces, displacing more than 300 families. Lying on the southern edge of Kirkuk, in addition to the neighbourhood’s residents, the area was also hosting mostly Sunni Arabs who fled villages around Kirkuk that were overrun by ISIL in 2014.

“We want to ask the joint forces and the government forces who demolished our houses, why they did it,” said another Kirkuk resident whose house was destroyed and identity documents confiscated..

Kirkuk Governor Najmiddin Karim, a Kurd, has repeatedly denied in comments to Iraqi media that forcible displacements are taking place in the province. Kurdish security officials and the governor did not respond to requests for comment.

But Rakan Said Al Jibouri, the deputy governor and head of the Arab council of Kirkuk, confirmed the destruction.

“We consider this wrongful behaviour and a racist attack by the security forces and the political parties behind them,” he said. The destruction has forced many of Kirkuk’s Arab residents to scatter, taking refuge with relatives.

Kirkuk is claimed by both Iraq’s central government and the largely autonomous Kurdish region.

When ISIL overran Mosul and much of the north and pushed through central Iraq toward Baghdad in the summer of 2014, Kurdish security forces moved in and assumed full control of Kirkuk. They said the move was to protect it from ISIL after the collapse of the military. But Kurdish officials have said since that they will keep the city.

The October attack by the ISIL in Kirkuk came just a week after Iraqi forces launched the operation to retake Mosul. In a complex attack carried out by at least 100 fighters, gunmen and suicide bombers targeted different parts of Kirkuk nearly simultaneously, killing dozens. It took nearly 24 hours to subdue them.

Security officials in Kirkuk warned that the attack demonstrated the threat ISIL will pose long after Mosul falls.

Kurdish officials were quick to blame Sunni Arabs displaced from ISIL-held areas for the attack.

Kurdish authorities have previously been accused of “deliberate mass destruction” to Arab villages in Iraq’s north, according to a January 2016 report from Amnesty International. The Amnesty report used satellite images to support claims that Kurdish forces bulldozed, blew up and burnt down thousands of homes in an effort to uproot Arab communities as revenge for their alleged support of ISIL.

Largely with the help of US-led coalition air strikes, Kurdish forces fighting ISIL have taken territory that has expanded their recognised autonomous zone by 50 per cent.

Mr Al Jibouri, Kirkuk’s deputy governor, said destroying Arab villages and demolishing homes will likely stoke tensions between Iraq’s Kurds and Arabs in the country’s north and only lead to further violence. He said he had asked the parliament for compensation for those who lost their houses but so far had not received a response.

The destruction “will not serve the security or peaceful coexistence of the people of Kirkuk,” he said.

*Associated Press