Reports: Iraqi Jets Exchanged Fire With Peshmarga Forces in Tuz Khurmatu
TUZ KHURMATU - The head of security (Asayish) in the multiethnic and restive town of Tuz Khurmatu said that Kurdish Peshmarga forces had exchanged fire with Iraqi fighter jets over the Hanjir Mountain area, but no casualties were reported and there was no official confirmation of the clash.
"Last night several Iraqi fighter jets flew low over the Hanjir Mountain. Peshmarga forces fired at them to keep them away and the jets bombed the area," said Faruq Ahmed, head of security in Tuz Khurmatu.
He said the jets had bombed the 16th Brigade of the Peshmarga forces deployed in the Hanjir Mountain area.
But Jabar Yawar, spokesman for the Peshmarga Ministry in Erbil, rejected the claim. "Peshmarga forces have not shot at anyone," he said.
Tensions have been high in the area since last June, when the Iraqi military’s 16th Brigade refused orders from Baghdad to take part in a security operation in the restive Sunni town of Suleiman Beg in Salaheddin province.
As a disciplinary measure, the army then deployed the brigade of more than 1,000 officers and soldiers to a military camp in Diyala province. That triggered a defection by the entire brigade, which declared itself part of the Kurdish Peshmarga forces.
Tuz Khurmatu is located 70 kilometers south of Kirkuk but is under the administration of Salaheddin province.
In November 2012, following high tensions, two people were killed and 10 wounded in a clash between the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces. That led to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) sending in a heavy deployment of Peshmarga forces to forestall the Iraqi army from advancing into disputed areas that are claimed both by the Kurds and the Arab government in Baghdad.
Several Peshmarga officials, contacted by Rudaw, confirmed the latest clash. They said that Peshmarga forces received orders from senior officials to fire at the jets following the bombing.
Ahmed said that Abdul Amir al Zaid, head of the Iraqi military’s Tigris Operations Command, had accused Peshmarga forces of firing at the Iraqi jets.
A source in the Iraqi army confirmed the clash, but called it “technical.” He said there had been no casualties and that Peshmarga forces are stationed near a site of clashes between the Iraqi army and Sunni militants.
Meanwhile, the Peshmarga spokesman rejected reports of a joint force of Kurdish and Iraqi army forces in Kurdish areas outside the KRG's jurisdiction.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered the formation of the Tigris Operations Command in the summer 2012 to take over security in the provinces of Kirkuk, Salaheddin and Diyala, which all lie in the disputed territories claimed by the KRG and Baghdad. The KRG has rejected the formation of the Tigris force as “unconstitutional.”
http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/20022014
