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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bilow who wrote (122639)	12/31/2003 4:38:51 PM
From: Sig	Respond to of 281500

And for those who just have to watch fireworks on New Years there is this. blessedcause.org

To: Bilow who wrote (122639)	1/1/2004 12:37:02 AM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Two dead as ethnic tensions boil over in Iraqi city Reuters, 12.31.03, 7:30 AM ET [EDIT: The civil war is stirring. Still at very low intensity. But small bubbles can be seen if you look closely.] By Adnan Hadi KIRKUK, Iraq, Dec 31 (Reuters) - At least two protesters were killed and more than 25 wounded on Wednesday when gunfire erupted during a demonstration in Kirkuk, where Kurds are bidding for more control of the oil-rich northern city. Several thousand Arab and Turkmen protesters marched on the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of two main Kurdish factions, and surrounded the building, chanting "No to federalism, Kirkuk is Iraqi". Kirkuk's chief of police said two people were killed in a burst of gunfire and doctors at a nearby hospital said at least 26 were wounded, six of them seriously. It was not immediately clear who fired on who. Some of the wounded said they had been shot at by PUK peshmerga fighters. But Jalal Jawhar, head of the PUK office in Kirkuk, said the Turkmen protesters opened fire on the PUK offices, wounding three members of Kirkuk's largely Kurdish police. The chief of police said his men had not fired on anyone. Witnesses said U.S. tanks and armoured vehicles quickly moved in to seal off the area, fanning out near the PUK offices and a local government building to keep protesters at bay. The incident is the latest episode of violence among Kurds and others vying for power in the city, where Saddam Hussein forced out Kurds and Turkish-speaking Turkmens to Arabise the site of Iraq's richest oil reserves. Since Saddam's fall, Iraqi Kurds have extended their influence from the Kurdish northern zone they wrested from Baghdad's control after the 1991 Gulf War to Kirkuk, playing the lead role in local governments working with the U.S. military. Kurds on Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council are proposing that a future, federal Iraqi government grant broad autonomy to the northern zone, with Kirkuk as its capital and having a say over other areas with large Kurdish populations. That plan is bitterly opposed by Turkmens and Arabs. About 12 people were killed in August when protests over the sacking of a Turkmen shrine in the ethnically divided town of Tuz Khurmatu -- where Turkmens accuse Kurds from the north of theft and intimidation -- spread to Kirkuk. FEARS OF NEW YEAR ATTACK In Baghdad, U.S.-backed security forces stepped up patrols in the capital due to fears that insurgents may chose the New Year period to launch attacks against coalition forces. In the past four days, two U.S. soldiers have been killed in separate roadside bomb blasts, raising to 327 the number of U.S. troops killed in action since the war was launched in March. Following allegations of overcharging by Halliburton (nyse: HAL - news - people), a Texas oil-services firm which formerly employed U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, the U.S. military said one of its energy units will take over the task of providing fuel for Iraq. The Pentagon's Defense Energy Support Center said it would assume control of rebuilding Iraq's oil industry and that it would award new contracts through a competitive bidding process. Earlier this month, the Pentagon said a draft audit found evidence that Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton that was awarded a no-bid contract to rebuild Iraq's oil industry, may have overcharged U.S. taxpayers $61 million to supply fuel to Iraq from Kuwait. Halliburton denies wrongdoing. In Bulgaria, five soldiers killed in a suicide bomb attack in the southern Iraqi city of Kerbala last Saturday were buried with military salutes in their hometowns on Wednesday. Two Thai soldiers and 12 Iraqis were also killed in the Kerbala violence. (Additional reporting by Joseph Logan in Baghdad and JoAnne Allen in Washington) Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service forbes.com