Baghdad says may use force if Kurdish referendum turns violent

This news has been read 6134 times!

Blast kills 8 in Iraq village seized from IS

BAGHDAD, Sept 17, (Agencies): Eight members of an Iraqi paramilitary unit died Sunday in a booby-trap explosion in a school near the city of Mosul that was retaken from jihadists, a security official said. In the latest example of the dangers left behind by retreating Islamic State group members, Jabbar al-Maamuri, a commander of the unit of tribal fighters, told AFP that 13 others were wounded in the blast at the school that was being used as a training centre. He said the school in Majarine village 20 kms (12 miles) west of Mosul had been mined by the jihadists, who were ousted from the city at the end of August by a coalition of pro-government forces.

The village itself was seized in early July as Iraqi forces advanced on Mosul. In another such incident in newly recaptured areas, six members of the Hashem al-Shaabi paramilitary unit were killed in an explosion Saturday in Akashat in the western province of Anbar, security sources said.

Meanwhile, the US-led coalition says several Islamic State suicide bombers have attacked one of its bases in northern Iraq, without causing any Iraqi or foreign casualties. US Army Col Ryan Dillon, the coalition spokesman, says all the attackers were killed.

Dillon says Sunday’s attack occurred in the area of the northern town of Hawija, one of the last pockets of IS control after the extremists were driven from Mosul earlier this year. US-backed Iraqi forces have retaken all the major urban areas the extremists once held in Iraq, but IS remains capable of carrying out attacks on civilian and military targets.

On Thursday, an IS attack on a checkpoint and restaurant in southern Iraq killed more than 80 people and wounded dozens more. A car bomb explosion targeting shops selling alcohol in Iraq’s northern city of Kirkuk on Saturday killed three civilians and wounded nine, a security official said. He said the blast damaged the shops and sparked a fire in three vehicles.

Kirkuk is the capital of the oil-rich province of the same name which is disputed by the federal government in Baghdad and the autonomous region of Kurdistan. The blast comes as Kurdish leaders prepare to hold an independence referendum on Sept 25 in the face of fierce opposition from Baghdad and the Kurds’ international backers.

The Kurdish Regional Government is embroiled in long-standing disputes with the federal government over oil exports, budget payments and control of ethnically divided areas.

On Thursday, the Baghdad parliament fired the governor of Kirkuk province, Najm Eddine Karim, over his provincial council’s decision to take part in the non-binding referendum. Kirkuk, which is home to diverse communities including Arabs and Turkmen who oppose the vote, is under the authority of the Baghdad federal government. Iraq is prepared to intervene militarily if the Kurdish region’s planned independence referendum results in violence, Prime Minister Haider al- Abadi told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Saturday.

If the Iraqi population is “threatened by the use of force outside the law, then we will intervene militarily,” he said. Iraq’s Kurdish region plans to hold the referendum on support for independence from Iraq on Sept 25 in three governorates that make up their autonomous region, and in disputed areas controlled by Kurdish forces but which are claimed by Baghdad. “If you challenge the constitution and if you challenge the borders of Iraq and the borders of the region, this is a public invitation to the countries in the region to violate Iraqi borders as well, which is a very dangerous escalation,” al-Abadi said.

This news has been read 6134 times!