At least three people were killed and several injured in shootouts between Arabs and Kurds in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk that began overnight, witnesses said yesterday.
| Those guys just never get enough, do they? |
Gunfights broke out following disputes over the ownership of houses and land, the witnesses came to tell AFP in the Kurdish regional capital of Arbil further north, which is controlled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani. The two sides also fought with knives, said one witness, who added he had seen the bodies of three Kurds killed in the Al-Shuhada neighborhood of the city. A KDP delegation headed to Kirkuk to try to restore calm in the key oil-rich city. Kurds accused the deposed regime of Saddam Hussein of pursuing an active policy of settling Arabs from central and southern Iraq in and around Kirkuk in order to change its demographic character. Two days of looting and score-settling gripped Kirkuk after US-backed Kurdish forces seized the city on April 10 following the US-led ouster of Saddam’s regime. Some Kurds tried to forcibly recover their properties and expel Arab inhabitants, sparking fights. Kurdish fighters later pulled out of the city to be replaced by US troops.
| Apparently there's no such thing as a deed, and the courts were for sale... |
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