Turkmens are opposed to Kurdish hegemony over their ancestral lands, therefore peshmerga must be banned from Turkmeneli.
US-collaborationist peshmerga militia must be withdrawn from all Turkmen towns, starting from Kerkuk!
The Associated Press
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Maliki: Status of Kurdish peshmerga remains unchanged despite crackdown on militias
BAGHDAD: Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the head of the Kurdish regional authority agreed Saturday to retain the current semiautonomous status of the peshmerga — the military force responsible for security in Iraqi Kurdistan — despite a government crackdown on militias elsewhere in Iraq.
"The guards of the province have the cover of legitimacy inside Kurdistan because they form organized forces," al-Maliki said after a meeting with Nechervan Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdish government in northern Iraq.
The decision on the peshmerga comes after al-Maliki demanded that anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr disband his Mahdi Army or quit politics.
Iraqi forces supported by U.S. and British troops have mounted a series of attacks on the militants in Baghdad's sprawling Sadr City district and in the southern port city of Basra, both strongholds of the Mahdi Army.
Hundreds have died in a series of clashes which started with an offensive by government troops in Basra on March 25.
Al-Maliki and the political parties supporting his government — which includes the Kurds — insist on the disbanding of all militias groups.
During Saturday's meeting between al-Maliki and Barzani, the two agreed that peshmerga forces in Kurdistan will remain organized within two Iraqi army divisions numbering 25,000-30,000 troops, said a government official who attended the meeting.
Other peshmerga forces outside the Kurdish areas will be disbanded, said the official who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The fighters have been in control of Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish areas for more than a decade. During the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, they assisted advancing U.S. forces and provided security in other parts of Iraq after the disbanding of the Saddam Hussein's security forces.
BAGHDAD: Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the head of the Kurdish regional authority agreed Saturday to retain the current semiautonomous status of the peshmerga — the military force responsible for security in Iraqi Kurdistan — despite a government crackdown on militias elsewhere in Iraq.
"The guards of the province have the cover of legitimacy inside Kurdistan because they form organized forces," al-Maliki said after a meeting with Nechervan Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdish government in northern Iraq.
The decision on the peshmerga comes after al-Maliki demanded that anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr disband his Mahdi Army or quit politics.
Iraqi forces supported by U.S. and British troops have mounted a series of attacks on the militants in Baghdad's sprawling Sadr City district and in the southern port city of Basra, both strongholds of the Mahdi Army.
Hundreds have died in a series of clashes which started with an offensive by government troops in Basra on March 25.
Al-Maliki and the political parties supporting his government — which includes the Kurds — insist on the disbanding of all militias groups.
During Saturday's meeting between al-Maliki and Barzani, the two agreed that peshmerga forces in Kurdistan will remain organized within two Iraqi army divisions numbering 25,000-30,000 troops, said a government official who attended the meeting.
Other peshmerga forces outside the Kurdish areas will be disbanded, said the official who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The fighters have been in control of Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish areas for more than a decade. During the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, they assisted advancing U.S. forces and provided security in other parts of Iraq after the disbanding of the Saddam Hussein's security forces.
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