REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK
Features

Kirkuk explosions: No surprise

Al Jazeera’s Josh Rushing says the recent car bomb attacks in Kirkuk should not come as a surprise given the actions of

Published On 10 Feb 2011

Three car bombs rocked Kirkuk this week killing seven people so far and injuring at least 75.  

To anyone paying attention this violence should not come as a surprise.

In fact, in an episode of Fault Lines last year we all but predicted exactly this kind of push back against the Kurdish security forces as the US withdraws from Iraq.  

 
The Kurds, with the imprimatur of the US, have spent the eight years since the invasion aggressively trying to secure Kirkuk, and its massive oil supplies, by moving Kurdish families into the province by the tens or hundreds of thousands (depending on whose numbers one believes).
 
They have intimidated Arabs and Turkomen, with Kurdish police forces who openly call excursions into Arab neighbourhoods and villages “terrorist hunting”, and through kidnappings by the Kurdish secret police, Asaish.  

As a Sunni father – whose son was allegedly kidnapped by Kurdish intelligence forces – told me, as the US military withdraws from Kirkuk “within one hour there will be a fight and the Kurds will be expelled”.