Richard
06-11-2013, 07:44
Rut-roh...
Richard
Amid rising ethnic tension, Kurdish brigade soldiers stop taking orders from Baghdad
WaPo, 10 June 2013
The Iraqi army’s 16th Brigade was once a hopeful symbol of cooperation between Iraq’s rival ethnic groups. Roughly half Arab and half Kurdish, the brigade had provided security since 2008 for an ethnically mixed population in one of the most volatile parts of the country.
Now the brigade has split in two. Amid rising ethnic and sectarian pressure, the Kurdish half of the brigade has stopped taking orders from Baghdad, and Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government intends to formally incorporate more than 1,200 troops — and the sensitive territory they control — under the authority of its own security forces.
(Cont'd) http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/amid-rising-ethnic-tension-kurdish-brigade-soldiers-stop-taking-orders-from-baghdad/2013/06/10/e3faa8d4-d1f7-11e2-9f1a-1a7cdee20287_story.html?wpmk=MK0000203
Richard
Amid rising ethnic tension, Kurdish brigade soldiers stop taking orders from Baghdad
WaPo, 10 June 2013
The Iraqi army’s 16th Brigade was once a hopeful symbol of cooperation between Iraq’s rival ethnic groups. Roughly half Arab and half Kurdish, the brigade had provided security since 2008 for an ethnically mixed population in one of the most volatile parts of the country.
Now the brigade has split in two. Amid rising ethnic and sectarian pressure, the Kurdish half of the brigade has stopped taking orders from Baghdad, and Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government intends to formally incorporate more than 1,200 troops — and the sensitive territory they control — under the authority of its own security forces.
(Cont'd) http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/amid-rising-ethnic-tension-kurdish-brigade-soldiers-stop-taking-orders-from-baghdad/2013/06/10/e3faa8d4-d1f7-11e2-9f1a-1a7cdee20287_story.html?wpmk=MK0000203