Iraqi forces 'launch major Kirkuk operation'

[kingQamaR]

All it took 24 hours to this .

So congratulations to Turkish and Iraqi soldiers on your resounding victory .

 

[Baybars Han]

All it took 24 hours to this .

So congratulations to Turkish and Iraqi soldiers on your resounding victory .

They just fleed without even fighting and there was no Turkish soldiers.

 

[defence_analyst]

The Kurds need to stand firm in their own areas and not let the racist sectarian regime bully them with their bully neighbouring states. Freedom comes at a price. It is nit going to be easy but it will happen. Kurds are unique people in the madness that is middle east with all it's sectarian and ethnic bullsh!t and it sbould remain that way. Let the Arabs, Turks and persian fight their sectarian and ethnic wars.

They are just another set of ME terrorists. People have lost all sympathy once they forcefully ocupied Kirkuk where people don’t want anything to do with Kurds. Just to hold oil fields they have shown their true colours. If they had limited themselves to their own areas maybe we wouldn’t be witnissing this humiliation right now as they run like cowards.

 

[Dinky]

Commander in Peshmerga militias Islam Chali says his brand new shoes got damaged due to running for thousands of miles #Kirkuk

 

[Hack-Hook]

It is important that all Iraqi (Kurds are foreigners) political parties are supporting this move towards liberating Kirkuk and other Iraqi territories stolen illegally by Kurdish terrorists.

please please let Iraqi themselves decide if kords in those areas are Iraqi or foreigner.
the mistake you are making there is the same mistake Myanmar did about their Rohingyas population

 

[Dinky]

16 hours ago

https://twitter.com/x/status/920046486481711104

 

[Solomon2]

I despise the fact that the U.S. betrayed its Kurdish allies here. The Kurds may have expected the U.S. to do nothing, yes, but that the U.S. won't criticize the Iraqi gov't at all is really nasty.

 

[Dinky]

Pages of Barzani fanatics mourning deaths of their militias who were routed by the Glorious Iraqi security forces near Kirkuk

 

[313ghazi]

I despise the fact that the U.S. betrayed its Kurdish allies here. The Kurds may have expected the U.S. to do nothing, yes, but that the U.S. won't criticize the Iraqi gov't at all is really nasty.

lol. In the words of Adele ... hello from the other side...

 

[Saif al-Arab]

please please let Iraqi themselves decide if kords in those areas are Iraqi or foreigner.
the mistake you are making there is the same mistake Myanmar did about their Rohingyas population

I have ancestral and family ties to Iraq. I have visited Iraq here unlike almost every person on PDF. I am very much familiar with the country, the history, people and the politics. I can safely say to you that most Iraqis do not consider Kurds based in KRG (Barzanistan) to be Iraqis. Neither do they act like Iraqis. Have you been sleeping under a rock for decades or what? That entity has been nothing else but an enemy since the foundation of Iraq. There were violent uprisings when Iraq was a Kingdom. Pre-1958 in other words.

Those so-called Iraqis conquered Iraqi territory illegally and violently in 2014. Such a patriotic thing to do.

Not only that Barzanistan is basically acting like an independent state. The only difference is that they prefer to leech on Baghdad (money smells good) and sabotage the Iraqi state. What kind of Iraqis are they when even their officials (current Iraqi president who is useless btw just like the current Iraqi constitution that should be destroyed immediately) are hostile to the state and taking sides?

Other ethnic minorities in Iraq (Assyrians, Afro-Arabs and Turkmens to mention the 3 largest ones outside of the Kurds) do not act like that. Not even the Feyli Kurds. Do you need more explanation?

Besides of that Arabs speak on behalf of other Arab countries and that will continue simply because they are fellow Arabs and modern-day nation states are not going to change that. We are being told the same about Yemen but that is not how it works among Arabs. At least the majority.

For instance I don't need to be a Qatari to say that newly naturalized Qatari citizens (in other words mercenaries) are foreigners. Or that I don't approve of illegal migrants in the GCC or Libya. Every single Arab has opinions about KSA. That is tolerated and understandable.

But yes, it is not for me to decide who is an Iraqi or not. The Kurds in Barzanistan have decided that for themselves and their answer has been a no for decades. Paper/passport here is irrelevant.

Lastly Iranians are the last people on this planet to tell Arabs what they should comment on or judge when they talk about their own internal affairs.

Not sure what this has to do with Rohingyas.

 

[Solomon2]

lol. In the words of Adele ... hello from the other side...

The Iraqi gov't pulled a "Saudi": letting the Kurds do the fighting and bleeding against ISIS, then stabbing the Kurds in the back. (Like the Sauds did to the Hashemites during WWI.)

 

[313ghazi]

The Iraqi gov't pulled a "Saudi": letting the Kurds do the fighting and bleeding against ISIS, then stabbing the Kurds in the back. (Like the Sauds did to the Hashemites during WWI.)

Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. If the Kurdish leadership had any sense they would have seen that coming.

 

[Dinky]

Now reports that Peshmerga militias and PKK Terrorists have fled from Mosul Dam...

 

[Solomon2]

U.S. Weapons Being Used by Iraqis and Shiite Militias Against Us in Kirkuk, Say Kurds

BY BRIDGET JOHNSON OCTOBER 16, 2017

Iraqi military vehicles move in the Qatash area toward a gas plant south of Kirkuk on Oct. 16, 2017. (APTN via AP)

WASHINGTON -- President Trump said today that the U.S. will not be "taking sides" as Iraqi forces and Iran-backed militias forcibly took Kirkuk overnight and pulled down the flag of Kurdistan.

The Kurdistan Region Security Council said in a statement early today that shortly before midnight the Iraqi forces and Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces advanced from Taza Khormatu in a "major, multi-pronged operation" from South Kirkuk to enter the city and take over the K-1 Air Base as well as oil fields.

At about 2:30 a.m. "they attacked Peshmerga Forces from two fronts in the Taza-Kirkuk intersection and Maryam Bag bridge, both in south of Kirkuk, using U.S. military equipment, including Abrams tanks and Humvees."

"Significant forces" were also present in Maktab Khalid in southwest Kirkuk, they added.

Peshmerga destroyed "at least five U.S. Humvees used by PMF."

"Peshmerga will continue to defend Kurdistan, its peoples and interests," the KRSC vowed. "This was an unprovoked attack following days of Iraqi military deployments to Kurdistan's borders."



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✔@KRSCPress
Replying to @KRSCPress

Footage today shows Iranian-backed PMF deployed near Maktab Khalid, SW of Kirkuk, using US equipment for attack on Kirkuk. #SupportKurdistan

11:13 PM - Oct 15, 2017


The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad issued an alert advising U.S. citizens to "shelter in place" as Iraqi forces conducted "security operations in the vicinity of Kirkuk City."

Defense Secretary James Mattis repeated to reporters Friday the administration position on Kurdish independence: "We thought the referendum was an ill-timed political event, and that it could distract from the combined effort against ISIS."

Mattis said the goal was "trying to tone everything down, and let's figure out how we go forward without losing our sight on the enemy, at the same time recognizing that we've got to find a way to move forward."

Kurds voted overwhelmingly Sept. 25 in support of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the Kurdistani areas outside the administration of Kurdistan Regional Government becoming an independent state. In response, Baghdad demanded that the Kurdish government relinquish its airports and oil revenue.

A few days later, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson confirmed in a statement that the U.S. government "does not recognize the Kurdistan Regional Government’s unilateral referendum."

"The vote and the results lack legitimacy and we continue to support a united, federal, democratic and prosperous Iraq," Tillerson said.

Asked today at a Rose Garden press conference about the seizing of Kirkuk and concerns for a larger conflict, Trump said, "We don't like the fact that they're clashing. We're not taking sides, but we don't like the fact that they're clashing."

"Let me tell you, we've had, for many years, very good relationship with the Kurds, as you know. And we've also been on the side of Iraq, even though we should have never been in there in the first place. We should have never been there," Trump added. "But we're not taking sides in that battle."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the administration needs to "immediately initiate a dialogue between the two sides to ensure a peaceful resolution between the Iraqi government and Iraqi Kurds that doesn’t jeopardize the ongoing fight against ISIS, put at risk the gains made to date, and determines the best way to accommodate the legitimate aspirations of the Iraqi Kurds.”

This afternoon, the Peshmerga General Command issued a statement calling the attack "a flagrant declaration of war against the nation of Kurdistan."

"This attack, waged by the Iraqi government, Hashd al-Shaabi and forces associated with the Headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ Quds force, is in retaliation against the people of Kurdistan who have asked for freedom," they said. "It is revenge against the honorable people of Kirkuk who have shown bravery."

The Peshmerga stressed again that the Kirkuk attack was "launched by American weapons, armored vehicles, tanks and other coalition weapons."

"These American weapons have been given to the Iraqi army and Hashd under the name of the war on ISIS. This was done at a time when the Peshmerga, also in the fight against ISIS, were not given necessary weapons to defend themselves against the terrorists," they added.

"We hereby reassure the people of Kurdistan that Kurdistan’s Peshmerga forces is defending bravely with high morale on every front despite having some impurity on the part of some officials and plots by the Iraqi government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards. We also reiterate that it is impossible for the will of the people of Kurdistan to be broken by these plots and also impossible for us to allow the enemies of the people of Kurdistan to succeed," the statement continued. "We call upon all the real Peshmerga of the country and the resilient and enemy-defeating people to do all they can to resist and defeat the attackers. The first person responsible for selling this war to the people of Kurdistan is Abadi’s government that should pay a heavy price for this unfairness."

Saad Hadithi, an Iraqi government spokesman, confirmed to Kurdish station Rudaw that Iran’s Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani was in Iraq acting as an advisor to the Shiite militia.

“The position of the Iraqi government has stemmed from the constitution. The Iraqi constitution has to be respected as it has been drafted by the political parties including the Kurdistan coalition," Hadithi said, adding there is no such thing as the "Kurdistan nation."

 

[Tokhme khar]

This is a massive Iranian victory......I bet Khamenei shared a chuckle with Soleimani......lol