Kirkuk: Arabs Storm Kurdish Village to Oust Indigenous Residents

A large group of Arabs stormed the village of Palkana near Dubis in northwest of Kirkuk, attempting to force the indigenous Kurdish inhabitants out.

According to the information by locals hundreds of Iraqi Arabs who stormed the village were backed by the Iraqi army.

The Arab families are those who were moved to the area during the Baath era as part of Saddam Hussein’s Arabization campaign of Kirkuk province.

However, they were compensated by the government after 2003, and were returned to their original hometowns in central and southern Iraq.

They seize the complicated situation in Kirkuk now to return to the Kurdish lands despite the compensation they received.

Head of Kirkuk internal security, Idris Rafaat, mentioned that the Kurds in the area had confronted the Arabs, denying to leave their land.

“This situation needs to be urgently addressed,” Rafaat explained, noting that there is a high possibility of an armed conflict between the Kurds and Arabs.