SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdish parties see the formation of a Kurdish regiment within Iraq’s Hashid al-Shaabi as a “danger” to the position of Kurds in Kirkuk province.
Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) said on Saturday that it had formed a regiment including Kurdish residents in the countryside of Kirkuk province on Saturday.
The formation was announced during a ceremony in which a number of Kurdish and Arab tribes attended in the village of Chakhmakha in Dibis district, northwest of Kirkuk.
“The members of the regiment are all Kurds and their duty is to protect villages around Dibis,” said Adham Jumaa, the supervisor of the regiment.
The federal government retook control of the disputed areas claimed by both Baghdad and Erbil from the Kurdish forces in October 2017 in the wake of the independence referendum. Since then, security has been run by the Iraqi forces and Hashid al-Shaabi.
Iraqi and Kurdish officials say Islamic State (ISIS) militants have benefited from the vacuum between Iraqi and Peshmerga forces in the disputed areas, including Kirkuk.
Member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) bloc at the Kirkuk Provincial Council Azad Jabbar said his bloc had tried to write a report about the move, but it was prevented.
He did not elaborate who prevented them from writing the report.
“This is also part of Jashayati [referring to Kurds who collaborated with Baath forces in attacking Kurds], and it will increase … Some of the Kurdish leadership might even know about this step,” Jabbar told Esta Media Network.
“This is a conspiracy against Kurds and to make Kurds to be ununified,” he added.
The PMF is largely-Shia paramilitary umbrella organization which was formed to fight ISIS militants, who overran large swathes of territories in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
Meanwhile, member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) bloc at the Kirkuk Provincial Council Mohammed Kamal told Esta Media Network that the formation of a Kurdish regiment within Hashid al-Shaabi would not be successful.
“I think this step is not a good thing. If it was successful, it would be a basis for [the formation of] the Light Regiment,” Kamal said, referring to a military unit composed of people of Kurdish descent that cooperated with Baath regime’s forces fighting against Peshmerga forces.
