Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 17 OcTOber 2017

Iraqi forces push into disputed city; Kurds withdraw Egypt: Militants
rob bank, attack
By BALINT SZLANKO policy. nority, including a poison forces moved into Kirkuk to
PHILIP ISSA In their bid to keep Kirkuk gas attack on the town of secure the city and its sur- church, 7 dead
Associated Press and its oil-rich countryside, Halabja in 1988 that killed rounding oil wells. The city By ASHRAF SWEILAM
KIRKUK, Iraq (AP) — Two SAMY MAGDY
weeks after fighting to- Associated Press
gether against the Islamic
State, Iraqi forces pushed EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) — Is-
lamic militants on Monday
their Kurdish allies out of the
disputed city of Kirkuk on staged a two-pronged
assault in the heart of the
Monday, seizing oil fields
and other facilities amid largest city in Egypt’s Sinai
lobbing
Peninsula,
gre-
soaring tensions over last
month’s Kurdish vote for in- nades and trading gunfire
with guards at an unused
dependence.
The move by the Iraqi mili- Coptic church to distract
from a bank robbery across
tary and its allied militias so
soon after neutralizing the the street.
By the time the attack was
Islamic State in northern
Iraq hinted at a country over, seven people were
killed, including a child,
that could once again turn
on itself after disposing of a and 17 million Egyptian
pounds (about $1 million)
common enemy.
Civilians and federal troops were reportedly stolen.
The assault came just a
pulled down Kurdish flags
around the city. Kurdish day after the Islamic State
group attacked military
Gov. Najmaddin Karim, This image shows Iraqi soldiers on military vehicles in the Qatash area towards Kirkuk gas plant,
who had stayed at his post south of Kirkuk, Iraq, Monday, Oct. 16, 2017. Iraqi state media say federal troops have entered checkpoints in a nearby
town, killing nine soldiers.
despite being dismissed by disputed territories occupied by the nation’s Kurds. (APTN via AP)
Baghdad weeks ago, fled The attacks underscored
the extremists’ ability to
to Irbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish leaders whipped thousands. is 32 kilometers (20 miles)
autonomous Kurdish zone. up fears that the central As Arab and Turkmen revel- outside the Kurds’ autono- carry out spectacular as-
saults despite Egypt’s all-
Revelers waving Iraq’s na- government in Baghdad is ers celebrated the change mous region in northeast
tional flag and the flag of its dominated by Tehran and of power in Kirkuk, thou- Iraq. out efforts to contain the
long-running
insurgency
Turkmen minority flooded would oppress Kurds if they sands of Kurdish residents, Baghdad insisted the city
central Kirkuk in an evening recaptured the ethnically fearful of federal and mili- and its province be re- in Sinai. Monday’s attack
unfolded when about two
celebration. mixed city. tia rule, packed the roads turned, but matters came
But it was the Shiite sectar- Their fears were further af- north to Irbil. to a head when the Kurd- dozen militants drove into
the center of the coastal
ian chants heard above firmed after Iran came But Baghdad was eyeing ish authorities expanded
the din of the rally that un- out forcefully against the its Kurdish partners warily as their referendum to include city of el-Arish in the morn-
ing, then split into two
derscored the coming po- Kurdish region’s nonbind- well. Kirkuk. To the Iraqi central
litical battles between Iraq ing referendum for inde- Prime Minister Haidar al- government, that looked groups, according to Egyp-
tian security officials. One
and its Kurdish region. pendence on Sept. 25 and Abadi said he was reclaim- like a provocation that un-
Iraqi forces were support- then closed its official cross- ing a city that was never derscored what it sees as group exchanged gunfire
with the guards outside the
ed — as they always are ings to the region on Sun- within the legal boundaries unchecked Kurdish expan-
now in major operations day. of the Kurdish autonomous sionism. Church of Saint George,
unused for months follow-
— by the country’s Popu- Iraq’s Kurds, too, remem- region. The city of more than 1 mil-
lar Mobilization Forces, a ber the brutal campaigns When Iraq’s armed forces lion is home to a mix of Ar- ing a surge in attacks on
Christians in the peninsula.
predominantly Shiite militia waged by Saddam Hus- crumbled in the face of abs, Kurds and Turkmen, as
coalition that the Kurds see sein, himself an enemy of an advance by Islamic well as Christians and Sunni The church assault ap-
peared to be a distraction
as an instrument of Iranian Tehran, against the mi- State group in 2014, Kurdish and Shiite Muslims.q
from the bank heist. The
Raqqa: second group of militants
shot and killed the bank
Site of IS beheadings seized by Kurdish-led force guards, then stormed in
and emptied the safe be-
fore fleeing the scene two
By SARAH EL DEEB dise) Square have raged would linger there for days, its capture symbolic. “The hours later. Three civilians,
Associated Press since Sunday as IS put up mounted on posts. Resi- group showed off its might including a child, three
BEIRUT (AP) — Raqqa’s infa- a fight. Nine IS fighters were dents described how the in this square. Now it is bro- guards and a soldier were
mous public square where killed and 12 surrendered, bodies of those executed ken and is chased out of left dead and a total of 15
Islamic State militants used he said. would be labelled, each the heart of its alleged people were wounded.
to perform brutal execu- Paradise Square became with his or her perceived capital,” the commander Women and children were
tions and beheadings has synonymous with the crime, for the public to see. said. He spoke on condi- among the wounded, said
been captured Monday by group’s reign of terror. After The square previously tion of anonymity because the officials, who spoke on
the U.S.-backed Kurdish-led declaring their self-styled known for its famous ice he was not authorized to condition of anonymity be-
force fighting the extremist caliphate in Raqqa, the mil- cream shop was quickly speak to the media. cause they were not au-
group in Syria, as officials itants used the central city renamed from Paradise to SDF fighters launched an thorized to talk to journal-
say they expect the city to square to carry out public Hell (Jahim) Square. operation to retake the ists. After robbing the bank,
fall “within a few days.” beheadings and execu- A senior Kurdish command- last IS-held pocket of the Monday’s attackers were
Mustafa Bali, a spokesman tions, forcing the residents er in the city said the SDF city after some 275 militants caught on camera while
for the Kurdish-led Syrian to watch after summoning fighters have not yet seen and their family members fleeing from the scene in
Democratic Forces, said them with loudspeakers. what the group left behind surrendered over the week- a stolen pickup and three
clashes at Al-Naim (Para- Bodies and severed heads in the square but called end. q motorcycles. q