U.S. troops may be sent to Iraq's Arab-Kurdish 'trigger line'

[sabra]

Source: LATimes

American forces' assignment would be to build trust and bridge the gap between feuding Arabs and Kurds in northern Iraq. Al Qaeda is exploiting the split between the two sides, a U.S. general says.

August 18, 2009

Reporting from Baghdad

In an effort to defuse mounting Arab-Kurdish tensions, the U.S. military is proposing to deploy troops for the first time in a strip of disputed territory in northern Iraq, the top American general in Iraq said Monday.

Army Gen. Ray Odierno said the proposal would see U.S. troops deployed alongside Iraqi security forces and Kurdish peshmerga militiamen on the Arab-Kurdish fault line in the northern province of Nineveh, the scene of several recent high-profile bombings.

Their goal, he said, would be to build trust between Iraqi security forces representing the Baghdad government and Kurdish militia answerable to the Kurdish regional government at a time when an increase in bombings attributed to the militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq has sent tensions between the two administrations soaring.

"What we have is Al Qaeda exploiting this fissure between Arabs and Kurds in Nineveh . . . and what we're trying to do is close that fissure," the general told journalists at his headquarters at Camp Victory on the edge of Baghdad.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq-deploy18-2009aug18,0,4339340.story