Some troops prepare to protect territory, ethnic, religious interests By Tom Lasseter Knight Ridder Newspapers
KIRKUK, Iraq - Kurdish leaders have inserted more than 10,000 of their militia members into Iraqi army divisions in northern Iraq to lay the groundwork to swarm south, seize the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and possibly half of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, and secure the borders of an independent Kurdistan.
The Washington Times-ASSOCIATED PRESS- Published December 28, 2005
By Qassim Abdul-Zahra BAGHDAD - The Shi'ite religious bloc leading Iraq's parliamentary elections held talks yesterday with Kurdish leaders about who should get the top 12 government jobs, as thousands of Sunni Arabs and secular Shi'ites protested what they say was a tainted vote.
The New York Times - MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2005 BAGHDAD - Sunni Arab political leaders asked the main Shiite political bloc Sunday to give them 10 Shiite seats in the new Parliament in an early attempt to resolve questions over the results of the election last week. The Shiites refused the request.
The mood was festive as Kurds queued to vote in their regional capital, Irbil, and other towns and villages that make up the three provinces of Iraq's Kurdistan region.
By Ellen Knickmeyer - Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, December 17, 2005; A17
BAGHDAD, Dec. 16 - Kurdish and Shiite factional militias and other armed men blocked voters from polling sites in scattered locations during Iraq's national elections, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Friday. While the intimidation likely was not serious enough to influence the outcome of Thursday's vote, one U.S. diplomat said, the overt militia role was part of a dangerous trend in Iraqi politics.
December 11, 2005 - Op-Ed Contributor By KANAN MAKIYA - London
WASHINGTON and Baghdad will be tempted, with the adoption of a new Constitution and the election on Thursday for a four-year government, to declare victory in Iraq. In one sense, they are right to do so. The emerging Iraqi polity undoubtedly represents a radical break not only with the country's past but also with the whole Arab state system established by Britain and France after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Kurdish regional president and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani drops his ballot at a polling station in the northern city of Arbil December 15, 2005. A steady stream of Iraqi voters walked to polling stations nationwide on Thursday to elect their first full-time parliament since Saddam Hussein's overthrow, ignoring sporadic violence such as a mortar attack in Baghdad. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari
The Guardian - Monday December 12, 2005 Pop star drafted in as voters threaten to stay away in protest at living conditions Michael Howard in Sulaimaniya
Sat Dec 10, 3:30 PM ET DAMASCUS (AFP) - Syrian security forces dispersed a Kurdish protest in Damascus organized to coincide with the UN-designated International Human Rights Day, an AFP correspondent said.
By Cyrille Cartier, Special for USA TODAY - Fri Dec 9, 2005
The semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq has struck a deal with a foreign oil company to drill for oil in a mountainous region just outside this town. Kurdish leaders hope the new oil well will spur further exploration in the area and tighten the regional government's control over its oil wealth.
The New York Times - MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2005
WASHINGTON and Baghdad will be tempted, with the adoption of a new Constitution and the election on Thursday for a four-year government, to declare victory in Iraq. In one sense, they are right to do so. The emerging Iraqi polity undoubtedly represents a radical break not only with the country's past but also with the whole Arab state system established by Britain and France after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Thu Dec 15, 2005 - 6:04 AM ET
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