Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Ethnic Tensions In Iraq Are Rising

Maj. Issa Herki, an Iraqi Kurd, near a peshmerga guard post outside Mosul.
Liz Sly / Los Angeles Times


In Nineveh, Tensions Between Iraqi Kurds And Arabs Aimmer -- L.A. Times

Kurds are refusing to accept the authority of the new provincial governor, the head of an Arab nationalist party that opposes Kurdish aspirations to join part of Nineveh with Iraqi Kurdistan.

Reporting from Bashiqa, Iraq -- On a quiet stretch of road flanked by the rolling hills of northern Nineveh province stands a checkpoint many fear could become the next frontline in a new conflict over age-old issues of land and power dividing Arabs and Kurds.

To the west lies the provincial capital, Mosul: insurgent-infested and, since April, governed by a hard-line Arab nationalist group that is seeking to affirm Nineveh's Arab identity.

Read more ....

My Comment: This is the Achilles heel of Iraq. If the Central Government in Baghdad cannot accommodate these concerns, Iraq will start to splinter with time .... starting with the Kurds in the north.

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