Kirkuk to receive security file soon – al-Rubaei

Iraq-Kirkuk BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraq’s National Security Adviser Muwafaq al-Rubaei said on Monday that Kirkuk will receive its security file from the Multinational Forces soon, noting that the government will continue supporting the security authorities throughout Iraq, a statement of the national information center said. “Al-Rubaei received today a number of chieftains of Kirkuk province and told them that the province will receive the security file from the Multinational forces soon,” said the statement received by IraqiNews.com. “Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution will be the base for resolving the Kirkuk cause,” the statement quoted the Iraqi official as saying. Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution relates to the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk, an important and mixed city of Kurds, Turkmen, Christians, and Arabs. Kurds seek to include the city in the autonomous Iraq’s Kurdistan region, while Sunni Arabs, Turkmen, and Shiite Arabs oppose the incorporation. The article currently stipulates that all Arabs in Kirkuk be returned to their original locations in southern and central Iraqi areas, and formerly displaced residents returned to Kirkuk. A referendum, provided for in the Iraqi Constitution, was scheduled to be held by the end of the current year on including the city into the Kurdistan region. Kirkuk, 250 km (156 miles) north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, sits on the ruins of a 5,000-year-old settlement. Because of the strategic geographical location of the city, Kirkuk was the battle ground for three empires, Assyria, Babylonia and Media which controlled the city at various times. Kirkuk is the center of the northern Iraqi petroleum industry. It is a historically and ethnically mixed city populated by Assyrians, Kurds, Arabs and Iraqi Turkmen. The population was estimated at 1,200,000 in 2008. SH (S)/SR 1