Judy Woodruff: Old competitions in Iraq today were reconfigured by biological American allies.
The military forces and the Iraqi militia moved to push the Kurdish forces from the disputed city of Kirkuk in the north of the country.
Lisa Degardan begins our coverage.
man (Through the translator translator): The Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Dr. Haider al -Abadi, provided orders to protect the Kirkuk people and impose security in the city.
Lisa Degardan: After months of strange tensions, the Iraqi federal forces moved to restore the disputed city of Kirkuk from the Kurdish forces.
The effort that was launched before dawn. By midday, Iraqi soldiers, along with the state -backed militias, quickly took control of many huge oil fields north of the city. The Iraqis also seized Kirkuk Military Airport and various government buildings. They reduced what was a symbolic Kurdish flag in the ruler’s complex.
The journalist Rebecca Couls in Airbil was in Kirkuk this morning.
Rebecca Couls, Journalist: You can hear some clashes, and some fire at the distance, but for the largest part, the city looked somewhat deserted. Now, by the end of the day, the Iraqi army was mainly controlling the entire city and many Kirkuk suburbs.
Lisa Degardan: A spokesman for the Iraqi Shiite militia said they achieved all their goals with a few resistance.
Ahmed Al-SSADI, Al -Shaabi’s spokesman (through the translator): With the forces approaching the area, some rebels, who tried to hinder the advancement of advanced units. Our forces have restored fire and confirmed their source.
Lisa Degardan: This comes three weeks after the Kurdish referendum of the undisputed independence that included the disputed Kirkuk province.
More than 90 percent of the population of the Kurdish region to separate from Iraq voted. The Iraqi federal government, Turkey, Iran and the United States all rejected independence.
The multi -ethnic area of Kirkuk is located outside the independent Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Kirkuk, called the country’s oil capital, is called about 500,000 barrels per day.
In 2014, amid the ISIS attack throughout northern Iraq, the Kurds took control of Kirkuk, where the Iraqi army fled to the city. In the three years that followed, the Kurds, under the leadership of their president, Masoud Barzani, sought to strengthen their grip, despite tensions with the central government.
Today, Kurdish officials accused Iraq of carrying out a major multi -stamp attack.
Maj. Gen. Ayoub Yusuf said, Pashmerga Commander (through the translator translator): I do not know exactly what is happening, because we have been in this battle since 4:00 am. We have suffered from losses, including the martyrs, and now we have withdrawn to this situation. Some of the other Kurdish forces have withdrawn. They did not release a single shot.
Lisa Degardan: While the Kurdish forces withdrew from the south of the city, some residents pledged to die. Thousands of others fled to the north.
Rebecca Kolaard: Over the past few years, the Iraqi forces have focused on these Shiite militias in the first place, and the Kurdish forces were to fight ISIS. Now that the battle has ended, and what is fear is that this internal division in Iraq is now more clear and perhaps more violent.
Lisa Degardan: These clashes have a largely American armed military force against the other. Both Kurdish and Iraqi government forces are part of the ISIS fighting coalition. The United States has sought to reduce the fighting, describing the exchange of a misunderstanding.
In the garden of roses, President Trump tried to stay neutral.
President Donald Trump: We do not like the fact that they collide. We do not take a side. But we do not like the fact that they collide.
Lisa Degardan: For PBS NewShour, I am Lisa Digardan.
Judy Woodruff: For more information, I was now joined by Emma Sky. She worked as a consultant to General David Petraeus while the commander of the American forces in Iraq from 2007 to 2010, and Feisal Istrabadi. He is a former Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations and helped write the temporary Iraq constitution.
Welcome to both of you.
Let me start with you, Emma Sky.
This happened quickly. What exactly what the Iraqi government did?
Emma Sky, Yale University: The Iraqi government has deployed its forces north to Kirkuk.
Since 2003, the Kurds have made it clear that they wanted to include Kirkuk in their lands in order to move forward in obtaining independence, which has always been their goal. But Kirkuk is important to Iraq itself, and the Iraqi Prime Minister cannot lose Kirkuk.
So you can see this reaction that occurred after the independence referendum, which occurred on September 25, and also included the disputed areas and the city of Kirkuk.
Judy Woodruff: Feisal Itrabadi, what can you add to the reason for the Iraqi government’s appointment to the city?
Feisal Itrabadi, The former deputy of the United Nations Ambassador, Iraq: Well, a few reasons.
First, as Emma just said, it is part of the disputed lands, which are subject to the law and constitutionalism under the jurisdiction of the federal government in Baghdad. KRG has expanded in these disputed lands at the time when ISIS was broadcasting its lands, then began taking steps to one side that these areas were now merged into the Kurdistan region, including when I held the referendum that Emma talked about.
It included the referendum contract in these disputed areas. Now, as long as Iraq – as long as we are talking about one country, it matters slightly less than controlling Kirkuk, but once the referendum is conducted, this led to the second reason for the selection of Baghdad to behave now.
Emma said, Kirkuk is an important area for oil production in Iraq. It is important to the economic survival of an independent Kurdish state and an important part of the economic feasibility of the Iraqi state. So there was no scenario, I think, as Baghdad will allow the practice of unilateral control by the Kurds on Kirkuk, as long as independence is on the table.
Judy Woodruff: Emma Sky, we heard that President Trump says today that the United States is not taking side in this.
Is this accurate, that the United States does not take a side? What is the role of the United States here?
Emma Sky: Well, the United States has repeatedly stipulated that its policy is to support Iraq.
So you can see the United States provided support to the Iraqi security forces, but also to the Kurdish peasma, to fight ISIS. The US policy has focused over the past few years on ISIS and not the day after ISIS.
But what we are witnessing at the present time is that the different groups are already moving to the next day, which is the struggle of power to control different lands in Iraq.
Barzani believed that during the battle against ISIS, he became stronger because he obtained direct weapons from the international community. As he said, he was able to expand his control over the disputed lands.
He also faces home problems inside Kurdistan. There are tensions between different Kurdish groups, and some believe that Barzani has exceeded his term as president.
Judy Woodruff: This reminds us of the complexity of this, Fissal Al -Tabadi.
What does the Iraqi central government want here? They will not get rid of the Kurds. What do they want?
Feisal Itrabadi: Oh, well, I mean, that the Kurds of course are a vital part of Iraq. It is a vital part of the political process, and it has been represented in Baghdad. The president of Iraq is a cordon and has been since 2005.
I think what should happen and hope what the government of Iraq wants is a negotiating settlement, in which no party specifies conditions for the other, but the settlement of negotiations.
See, IRBIL has some legitimate agreements regarding Baghdad. Baghdad has some legitimate agreements regarding IRBIL. I think we need a perhaps broker or someone to assemble a round table – the United States is what I think, of course – to address some of these issues.
Most issues, by IRBIL, and economic issues represented in payments, and by Baghdad, the transparency of the amount of oil produced by Irbil and export, which IRBIL has not been represented to Baghdad.
I think if these issues are resolved, we may hope that some of these other issues will be delayed for another day. But at the end of the day, the government – neither the regional government nor the federal government in Baghdad can tolerate the dictation of the conditions on it by the other side. I hope the level of negotiations will take place.
Judy Woodruff: Emma Sky, where do you see this go from here? Do you see the peace in which the various parties worked to create in Iraq resulting from that?
Emma Sky: I think there is an opportunity for a deal, and I think the type of deal that can be negotiated is the one that looks at a special situation of the city of Kirkuk and the conditions for negotiating with separate Kurdistan, whether it is towards the Confederation or towards independence.
But there must be negotiation. There must be a look at where the border between Iraqi Kurdistan and the rest of Iraq should be already, which requires the mediation area through these areas.
Judy Woodruff: Well, we know that there are other players who play an important role here in Iran and Turkey, and this all plays a lot while we are watching, watching it in Iraq.
Emma Sky, Vel Etrabadi, thank you very much.
Feisal Itrabadi: Thank you.
Emma Sky: Thank you.
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