Kirkuk braced for ethnic conflict

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5536878

KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops are braced for violence in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk after a strong showing by Kurds in provincial
elections threatened to upset the city's delicate ethnic balance.

"I think there'll be some ethnic violence here, I really do," said U.S. Captain Mitch Smith, a company commander in the heart of Kirkuk, the
most ethnically diverse city in Iraq.

"Before the elections there were concerted attacks on coalition forces and Iraqi security forces but I think the focus may have shifted now,"
he told Reuters on Monday.

"Rather than targeting us, I expect we might see the various groups in the city fighting among themselves."

more

[cthrumatrix]

1. worry about training soldiers and get the hell out of there!

what happened to "not a day longer"?

[jmcgowanjm]

2. the only US hope left-sectarian strife

The US is evacing to bases. And if you
believe Mafkarat al islam 25k troops
evac'd from Basra.

RAMADI, Iraq, Feb. 13 (Xinhuanet) — US forces will
withdraw from the city of Ramadi in the restive Anbar province
to pave the way for Iraqi security forces to take up
responsibility in the country, an official said Sunday.

"The US forces informed the governor of Anbar of the
withdrawal, which will take place in the middle of this month",
the official, who declined to be named, told Xinhua.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-02/14/content_2576300.htm

US, British occupation authorities sack Iraqis who revealed evacuation of US, British troops.

US occupation authorities in the southern Iraqi city of al-
Basrah fired the administrative official in charge of the Port
of al-Basrah who disclosed to the press on Sunday, 6
February 2005 that 25,000 US troops, many of them stricken
with hysteria insomnia and other mental disorders had
been evacuated from Iraq via the port of al-
Basrah.

The Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent in the city reported
Sunday that the firing of the port official by the Americans
was paralleled by the sacking by British forces of 14
Iraqi collaborator translators for making the same
disclosure.

Mafkarat al-Islam was the first media organ to publicize the
news just hours after the beginning of the evacuation
effort during that night. Hours later more than nine news
stations had broadcast the story, though they used lower
figures for the number of troops that the US and British
were pulling out.

[cliss]

3. "Rather than targeting us...."

I'm sure the military people over there are feeling pretty good about this. They figure they can turn the Iraqis against themselves, and they will stand off to the sidelines, enjoying the spectacle as the different ethnic groups decimate each other.

It won't work. I tried that as a youngster. I put our old cat in a clothes hamper, together with a teenage cat. There was lots of fighting. The hamper shook. It was very entertaining.

Today, I don't do that kind of stuff.

The US commanders are fooling themselves if they think they can distract from their own presence, by encouraging in-fighting among the Iraqis.

[aikido15]

5. This whole thing is a distraction...

from the war the neocons have waged on the Americans!

[underpants]

4. Yet another result unforeseeable by our fortified leaders

Damn if only someone would have raised the possibility of this happening....if only.