More headaches for the Dumbyasshole! (All the more reason to drop the hat, and attack Iran, eh?!)
Q: You mentioned reports of Shi'a moving into Kirkuk area. Can you give us a sense of the numbers moving in? You know, are these militias, are these residents? What's your sense of it?
COL. GRAY: ...We have seen some movement, as I mentioned, of the Badr Corps setting up additional offices in Kirkuk, and some indication of the Jaysh al-Mahdi coming to Kirkuk. How many the numbers are, I can't really say. They're coming in bits and pieces. I don't think it's in huge numbers right now.
And three days after that briefing, the Washington Post reported that:
Hundreds of Shiite Muslim militiamen have deployed in recent weeks to this restive city -- widely considered the most likely flash point for an Iraqi civil war...
[...]
And what do the Kurds, who have inserted more than 10,000 of their militia members into the Iraqi Army, say about control of Kirkuk?
The soldiers said that while they wore Iraqi army uniforms they still considered themselves members of the Peshmerga - the Kurdish militia - and were awaiting orders from Kurdish leaders to break ranks. Many said they wouldn't hesitate to kill their Iraqi army comrades, especially Arabs, if a fight for an independent Kurdistan erupted. [...]
"There is no other choice. If Kirkuk does not become part of Kurdistan peacefully we will fight for 100 years to take it." |
