Thread: Archive Latest News - Think Tank - 16/08/07 - 03/11/07

Oilfield fire in Kirkuk under control-source

A fire that erupted in an oilfield in southwestern Kirkuk came under control, a source from the North Oil Company said on Saturday.

"Firefighters have managed to extinguish the fire that broke out in a minor oil pipeline on Friday," the source, who requested anonymity, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI), providing no further details.

On Friday a source from Kirkuk police said that unknown gunmen set off an explosive device near a minor oil pipeline in southwestern Kirkuk, which carries crude oil to a refinery in the city.

Iraq's oil exports from the northern fields in Kirkuk are occasionally stalled due to armed groups' detonation of oil pipelines, which costs the war-troubled country great losses.

The last time Iraqi oil exports stopped was on Sunday because oil reservoirs in the Turkish port of Ceyhan, which receives 300,000 barrels per day from Kirkuk fields, were full.

Kirkuk, a mixed city of Kurds, Turkmen, Christians and Arabs, lies 250 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Oilfield fire in Kirkuk under control-source | Iraq Updates

Saboteurs blow up domestic pipeline

Saboteurs have blown up a domestic pipeline ferrying crude oil from Kirkuk oilfields to the Baiji refining complex.

The Baiji refinery is the largest in Iraq with a capacity of 350,000 barrels of oil a day.

But production has slumped since the 2004-U.S. invasion mainly to sabotage, lack of maintenance and corruption.

The refining complex at Baiji, nearly 300 kilometers north of Baghdad, relies mainly on Kirkuk crude further north. But the pipelines carrying the crude and those transferring the refined products to the rest of the country pass through some of the most restive areas in Iraq.

Baiji itself is a violent town with anti-U.S. rebels mounting daily attacks on oil tankers and transport vehicles using the highway linking Baghdad to Turkey.

U.S. troops are also target of frequent attacks.

Iraqi police say the latest explosion has rendered portions of the pipeline unusable, forcing the oil ministry to shut the flow of crude to the refinery.
Ministry officials said they would send a team to repair the damage.

Saboteurs blow up domestic pipeline | Iraq Updates

Al-Sulaimaniyah: Demonstrations

PUKmedia 2007-10-21 14:04:59
Hundreds of youths demonstrated today in al-Sulaimaniyah city against the Turkish Parliament decision to carry out a military mission inside Iraq’s Kurdistan Region for chasing the PKK elements.

The demonstration started from the city center in the presence of a well-known figures raising slogans against any military operation, and requesting to solve the issue via political and diplomatic talks.


PUKmedia :: English - Al-Sulaimaniyah: Demonstrations

Al Nassiriyah Water Project completed

Technical and engineering teams in the program of constructing and developing the provinces finished the works in Al Nassiriah water project that is considered one of the strategic important projects that provide water to 5 cities in the north and the south of the province.

In addition, the Directorate of Roads and Bridges in Missan accomplished a number of projects regarding roads and bridges in Missan’s centers and realms.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=4757

Baghdad reconstruction requires $13 billion

Baghdad provincial council has drawn up a ‘strategic plan’ to reconstruct the war-torn Iraqi capital, a statement by the council said.

The statement said the plan was prepared by provincial experts and would need $13 billion to be implemented.

The five-year plan has been sent to the Ministry of Planning for approval, the statement added.

“The plan covers all sectors and services in the capital,” the statement said.

Baghdad has turned into a run-down city with rickety infrastructure. It suffers from shortages of basic amenities and sectarian cleansing of neighborhoods.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=4759

Iraqi oil to flow via Ceyhan de****e operations

A high rank official source has clarified that the Iraqi crude oil will continue it's flowing to Turkish Ceyhan Port even in case that military operation will take place in the northern Iraq, at the time a large number of Turkish companies have frozen their work in the region.

The source, who had spoken to the Agence France Press, on condition of anonymity, pointed that: Iraqi oil flowing via Turkish Ceyhan port will not stop in case that military operation take place on the Iraqi-Turkish borders.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=4761

Presidents Talabani and Barzani Met

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani held a joint press conference with Kurdistan Region President Massud Barzani in Saladin Retreat today. They highlighted on the political developments in Kurdistan and Iraq, PKK issue and the tension on the Iraqi-Turkish borders.

In answering the reporters’ questions, President Talabani mentioned that the signed agreement between Iraq and Turkey to fight terrorism doesn’t give the right for the Turkish army to enter the Iraqi soil, and the Iraqi government is making its efforts to achieve a political solution and to calm the situation.

Kurdistan’s Region President said “we hope that no fight happens between PKK and the Turkish army. If the both sides insist on fighting, we will not be a part in it. We will defend our self in all situations.”

The Presidents stressed on solving all the problems in peace, politically and far away from the military solutions.

PUKmedia :: English - Presidents Talabani and Barzani Met

Iraqi Parliament condemns Turkey Incursion Threat

The Iraqi parliament Sunday condemned Turkey's threats to launch an incursion into Iraq's northern Kurdish region in a bid to crack down on rebel Kurds battling Ankara.

A parliamentary motion condemning the Turkish threat was approved by 183 lawmakers of the 275-member national assembly Sunday.

"Iraq's parliament unanimously votes to condemn the threat of using force to solve the dispute. It feels that the Turkish parliament's decision to use force does not boost bilateral relations," the motion said.

The parliament urged the government in Ankara to be "wise and work in coordination with the Iraqi government in order to deal with the crisis."
It also rejected armed activity by Kurdish rebels from Iraqi territory against neighboring countries.

"The parliament calls on PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party] fighters to leave Iraqi territories and ask the Iraqi government to take the required measures to stop PKK activities being launched from Iraqi territories," it said.

Baghdad's vote against a looming Turkish incursion came just hours after Kurdish rebels killed 16 Turkish soldiers and wounded 17 in an ambush in the mountainous southeast of the country, security sources said.

Some 10 soldiers were missing in action in fighting after the early morning attack near the village of Daglica, almost abutting the Iraqi border in Hakkari province, the sources added.

Turkey's top government and military leaders will meet Sunday night with President Abdullah Gul to discuss the response to the attack, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

The Turkish army has already sent additional troops to the region following the attack in which Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels ambushed an infantry platoon, the sources said.

Parliament in Ankara Wednesday approved a motion authorizing military strikes for a one-year period against PKK rebels, ethnic Kurds who use northern Iraq as a springboard for attacks across the border in Turkey.
Erdogan has said, however, that his Iraqi counterpart Nuri Al Maliki had proposed joint action to crack down on the PKK rebels.

"Maliki confirmed the following thing: that if there was no result from the talks, we would carry out this operation together," Erdogan said in an interview late Friday on the Kanal 24 news channel.

"We are tired of being put off with empty words," Erdogan said. "We need to see some concrete results with regards to the presence of [Kurdish rebels] in northern Iraq."

But he also said that the United States had the primary responsibility in routing PKK bases, and said talks with US President George W. Bush early next month in Washington would be crucial in determining the next course of action.

Ankara claims that some 3,500 PKK fighters have found refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan and are tolerated or even actively supported by Iraqi Kurdish leaders - a charge they strongly deny.

Authorities from the autonomous Kurdish government in Iraq, frightened of being squeezed by both Baghdad and Ankara, say they will rebuff any attack on their region.

"We frankly say to all parties: if they attack the region or Kurdistan experiment, under whatever pretext, we will be completely ready to defend our democratic experiment and the dignity of our people and the sanctity of our homeland," Kurdish regional President Massoud Barzani said Friday.

Turkey's threats of a cross-border military strike into crude producer Iraq have sent jitters through the international community, triggering calls for restraint, and have helped to push oil prices to record highs.

The PKK has waged a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.

PUKmedia :: English - Iraqi Parliament condemns Turkey Incursion Threat

Melodrama in Iraq

IRAQ war meant many things to many people. To President Bush, it meant a demonstration of his might; to vested interests in the west, it opened up an opportunity for cheap oil; to Donald Rumsfeld, it was an experimentation with America’s aerial firepower; to the Dick Cheneys and Halliburton, it was a sound business proposition; and, to the Iraqis, the war gave an idea of how hell is let loose on them.

The war, running into its fifth year, is a saga of suffering to every individual in Baghdad and beyond; its worst sufferers, like in every such situation, being women and children.

Time alone might tell us as to what difference the war has made to the people there; the saga in its totality; insurgency being the inevitable corollary of the original war. The bits and pieces of information that come out of the theatre of war are scary in themselves. Like, for instance, the fancy that children have taken to toy guns these days; and their preference to play with weapons, than with toys, as was brought out in a report from Iraq the other day. Children see adults carrying guns all the time, fighting, and letting blood out, and hence their love for weapons.

Iraq war, thus, is not all about the dethroning of a dictator from his long-held seat; or of breaking the back of the cronyism or nepotism that he is believed to have built around his throne. It rather is about brining out the beastliness in the humans. Abu Ghraib is just a symbol of all the things going wrong in the dark alleys there. This war is about the total devastation of a society.

The long-term, adverse impacts of this war will be horrendous and beyond one’s imagination. The anarchical situations there are going to have deep, adverse impacts on the lives of generations and generations of its people. The fancy that children develop for weapons there is just a external manifestation of a deeper malady. So, is George Bush fighting a war against terror, or fanning a craze for terror?

Surely, Iraqi children deserved a better deal — and a better life.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/editorial/2007/October/editorial_October44.xml&section=editorial&col=

Iraq cannot hand over rebels to Turkey: Talabani

Iraq's president said on Sunday that Baghdad could not deliver Kurdish rebel leaders to Turkey, as the crisis over the Iraq-based fighters intensified with the killing of 12 Turkish soldiers.

"The handing over of PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) leaders to Turkey is a dream that will never be realised," Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, told a news conference in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened an incursion into Iraq unless Baghdad clamps down on the rebels on its territory and turns over PKK leaders.

But Talabani indicated the Iraqis would be unable to succeed where the Turkish military had already failed.

"PKK's leaders are in Kurdistan's rugged mountains. The Turkish military with its mightiness could not annihilate them or arrest them, so how could we arrest them and hand them to Turkey?" he asked.

"Handing over Kurdish leaders is a dream which would not come true."
His remarks, made alongside the president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani, came as Ankara announced that 12 soldiers had been killed in clashes in southeastern Turkey that also left 23 rebels dead.

A leading PKK figure told AFP that Turkish soldiers had been captured after fierce fighting on Saturday night as they tried to "infiltrate" Iraq from Turkey's Hakkari province.

"There were clashes between the two sides. We killed a large number of them. We took a group of Turkish soldiers as prisoners," said Abdul Rahman al-Chadirchi, adding that the PKK would say how many later.

His claim was not confirmed by the Turkish military although earlier reports in Turkey said that 10 soldiers were missing.

Turkey's parliament on Wednesday approved a motion authorising military strikes into Iraq for a one-year period against PKK rebels using northern Iraq as a springboard for cross-border attacks.

A motion carried by a large majority in the Iraqi parliament on Sunday condemned that decision by its Turkish counterpart but urged its government to do more to rid the country of the PKK.

"The parliament calls on PKK fighters to leave Iraqi territories and asks the Iraqi government to take the required measures to stop PKK activities being launched from Iraqi territories," the motion said.

The motion was approved by 183 lawmakers of the 275-member national assembly.

In Ankara, Erdogan said he, President Abdullah Gul and top ministers and military leaders would meet later Sunday to decide on what action to take following the latest bloody rebel clashes.

The Turkish army has already sent additional troops to the region following the attack in which PKK rebels allegedly ambushed an infantry platoon.

Erdogan on Friday urged the Iraqi government to close "once and for all" the PKK camps, but judged "positive" recent vows by Baghdad to do so.

"What would satisfy us is the closure of all the PKK camps, including their training camps and the handover of their terrorist leaders," he was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.

He also said that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had proposed joint action to crack down on the PKK rebels.

"Maliki confirmed the following thing: that if there was no result from the talks, we would carry out this operation together," Erdogan said.

Ankara claims that some 3,500 PKK fighters have found refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan and are tolerated or even actively supported by Iraqi Kurdish leaders -- a charge they strongly deny.

"We call on both sides to avoid the war, but if war broke out between them, we would not be with either of them," Barzani said at the press conference with Talabani.

The PKK has waged a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.

Iraq cannot hand over rebels to Turkey: Talabani - Yahoo! News UK