BERLIN: Iraq’s Kurdish autonomous region plans to renew its push for independence once the city of Mosul is retaken from Daesh, its prime minister said Friday.
“The time has long been ripe for it, but we are currently concentrating on the fight against Daesh,” Kurdish prime minister Nechirvan Barzani told Germany’s Bild daily.
“As soon as Mosul is liberated, we will meet with our partners in Baghdad and talk about our independence,” he said according to the German translation.
The premier of the Kurdistan Regional Government added that “we have been waiting for too long, we thought that after 2003 there would be a real new beginning for a democratic Iraq. But this Iraq has failed.
“We are not Arabs, we are our own Kurdish nation ... At some point there will be a referendum on the independence of Kurdistan, and then we will let the people decide.”
In February, Kurdish President Massoud Barzani, the premier’s uncle, had called for a referendum on a Kurdish state in northern Iraq, raising tension with Baghdad, which opposes secession.
The Kurdish Peshmerga have fought with Iraqi government forces in a joint offensive to retake Mosul from Daesh.
Barzani said he estimates the coalition would need three months to retake the city and asked for more German weapons to aid his forces, as well as EU aid for refugees from the conflict.
On the battle against IS, he said “we have taken the outlying districts quickly, but it’s not clear how strongly IS will defend the city itself.
“We are seeing that they have hundreds of suicide bombers, they must have entire factories where they are making the explosives. That is the greatest threat to the offensive.”
Meanwhile, the US military says Iraqi forces have retaken 40 villages from Daesh near Mosul since the massive operation began last week.
US Air Force Brig. Gen. Matthew C. Isler said Friday that Iraqi troops are consolidating gains made east and south of the city earlier this week, but insisted “momentum” was still on their side.
Isler says the US-led coalition has stepped up airstrikes against the militants, and is carrying out three times as many as it did during previous campaigns to drive Daesh from other Iraqi cities.
Separately, a lawmaker said an Iraqi aircraft is believed to have carried out a strike on a Shiite place of worship last week that killed 15 people and wounded dozens.
The air raid in Daquq, a town in Kirkuk province of northern Iraq, sparked outrage among residents, who have demanded answers on who was behind the deadly Oct. 21 strike. “It is believed that it was an Iraqi aircraft,” said Hakim Al-Zamili, a lawmaker and member of the committee investigating the strike, citing preliminary results.
Some say the bombing was due to a technical problem while others believe it was intentional, Zamili said at a news conference in Daquq, promising to find out the cause.
The strike hit a Shiite place of worship that is known as a husseiniyah in Daquq on the afternoon of Oct. 21.
On Thursday, Daquq residents had demanded answers on the strike, criticizing the lack of information released so far.
Yaljan Mahdi Sadiq, a leading figure in the Daquq community, said families of the victims had refused compensation from the Iraqi government.
“They don’t want money, they want to know who committed this horrible crime against them,” Sadiq said.
The US-led coalition carrying out air strikes against the Daesh group in Iraq had previously said it had “definitively” determined it did not carry out the Daquq strike.
Russia had pointed an accusing finger at the coalition a day after the attack.
After Mosul liberation, independence to be discussed with Baghdad: Kurdish PM
After Mosul liberation, independence to be discussed with Baghdad: Kurdish PM
Syrian government says it controls prison in Raqqa with Daesh-linked detainees
- Prison holds detainees linked to Daesh, and witnessed clashes in its vicinity between advancing Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters
Syria’s Interior Ministry said on Friday it had taken over Al-Aktan prison in the city of Raqqa in northeastern Syria, a facility that was formerly under the control of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The prison has been holding detainees linked to the militant group Daesh, and witnessed clashes in its vicinity this week between advancing Syrian government forces and the SDF.
It was not immediately clear how many Daesh detainees remain in Al-Aktan prison as the US military has started transferring up to 7,000 prisoners linked to the militant Islamist group from Syrian jails to neighboring Iraq. US officials say the detainees are citizens of many countries, including in Europe.
“Specialized teams were formed from the counter-terrorism department and other relevant authorities to take over the tasks of guarding and securing the prison and controlling the security situation inside it,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Under a sweeping integration deal agreed on Sunday, responsibility for prisons housing Daesh detainees was meant to be transferred to the Syrian government.
The SDF said on Monday it was battling Syrian government forces near Al-Aktan and that the seizure of the prison by the government forces “could have serious security repercussions that threaten stability and pave the way for a return to chaos and terrorism.”
The US transfer of Daesh prisoners follows the rapid collapse of Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria. Concerns over prison security intensified after the escape on Tuesday of roughly 200 low-level Daesh fighters from Syria’s Shaddadi prison. Syrian government forces later recaptured many of them.
