Iraqi forces seize major airbase near Kirkuk

Iraqi security forces on Monday took control of the huge airbase near the city of the city of Kirkuk, as the troops are advancing to recapture the disputed areas, including the oil-rich Kirkuk province, the Iraqi military said.

The Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) forces completed its redeployment in the K1 airbase, also known as Hurriyah airbase, in northwest of the city of Kirkuk, the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a brief statement.

Meanwhile, sporadic clashes flared in the ethnically-mixed city of Tuz-Khurmato, some 230 km north of Baghdad, when paramilitary Hashd Shaabi unit from the Shiite Turkomans carried out an overnight attack on a Kurdish Peshmerga checkpoint at the southern entrance of the city, leaving two Peshmerga members killed and a third wounded, a security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

More attacks occurred during the day on the offices of the Kurdish parties, as clashes continued since midnight between the Peshmerga and the Hashd Shaabi unit which was also backed the security forces, the source said.

Reinforcement troops from the Iraqi security forces arrived in the city to bring calm to the city, the source said.

Tuz-Khurmato is made up mostly of Turkoman Shiite and sizable Kurdish and Sunni Arab population.

Previously, the city witnessed repeated clashes between the Kurds and Shiite militias, as the city and surrounding areas are part of the disputed areas outside the Kurdistan region.

The clashes in the city came after the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered government forces to enter the oil-rich Kirkuk province in northern Iraq to regain control of the disputed areas claimed between Baghdad and the Kurdish semi-autonomous region.

Disagreements between Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government have been running high for years. The ethnic Kurds consider the northern Kirkuk province and parts of Nineveh, Diyala and Salahudin provinces as disputed areas and want them to be incorporated into their region, a move fiercely opposed by the Arabs and Turkomans and by the central government in Baghdad.

The areas are mostly under the control of Peshmerga, but in small areas like Tuz-Khurmato, there is a mixed presence of federal forces and the Peshmerga.

Tensions are escalating between Baghdad and the region of Kurdistan after the Kurds held a controversial referendum on the independence of the Kurdistan region and the disputed areas.

The independence of Kurdistan is opposed not only by the Iraqi central government, but also by most other countries as it would threaten the integrity of Iraq and undermine the fight against Islamic State militants.

Iraq's neighboring countries, especially Turkey, Iran and Syria, fear that the Iraqi Kurds' pursuit of independence threatens their territorial integrity, as a large Kurdish population lives in those countries.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)