The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, October 29, 2007 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS Kur
BAGHDAD
U.S. to leave Karbala thri
province in Iraq
U.S.forceswillturnover security Rebel gr
to Iraqi authorities in the southern
Shiite province of Karbala today, caught b(
the American commander for the
area said, despite fighting between Iraqi, Turki
rival militia factions.
Karbala will become only the By SABRINA T
eighth of Iraq's 18 provinces to The New Yor
revert to Iraqi control, despite Pres-
ident Bush's prediction in January RANIYA, Iraq -
that the Iraqi government would concrete building o
have responsibility for security in tain road marks th
all of the provinces by November. rebel territory in thi
But the target date has slipped of northern Iraq..
repeatedly, highlighting the dif- The fighters base
ficulties in developing Iraqi police militants fighting T
forces and the slow pace of econom- own flag, and despi
it and political progress in areas national calls to c
still troubled by daily violence. operate freely, rec
A bomb struck a mainly Shiite in beat-up pickup t
town southeast of Baghdad on Sat- 10 miles from a gov
urday for the second time in less point.
than a week, the deadliest attack "Our condition is
on a day in which at least 23 people fighter, putting a h
were killed or found dead. ful of sugar into hi
"How about yours?"
DES MOINES, Iowa A giant face of t
-- Abdullah Ocalan,
Democrats move ish prison - has be
nearby slope.
up Iowa caucuses The rebel group,
Workers' Party, or
Iowa Democrats voted yester- center of a crisis
day to move their leadoff precinct key and Iraq that b
caucuses to Jan. 3, the same date group's fighters kil
Republicans picked earlier this soldiers last Sund
month, letting both parties contin- Turkey, a NATO me:
ue the tradition of meeting on the en an invasion.
same night. Inresponse,theU
The state's precinct caucuses intense pressure on
had been scheduled for Jan. 14, but leaders who contro
the parties decided to move them area where the reb
up under pressure from other states senior State Depa
rushing to the beginning of the pri- delivering a rare re
mary calendar. The move means over their "lack of a
the major question about the calen- ing the PKK.
dar is the New Hampshire primary, But even with Se
originally scheduled for Jan. 22. Condoleezza Rice sc
New Hampshire Secretary of Istanbul this comin
State Bill Gardner has said only that political leaders seet
he would schedule that primary no to act.
later than Jan. 8. An all-out battle
question, they argu
OCEAN ISLE BEACH, N.C. terrain makes it im
lodge them.
House fire kills12 "Closing the cam
and fighting," said
college students a senior Kurdish ol
maniya, the region
An intense fire ravaged a beach don't have the army
house packed with more than a did it in the past, an
dozen college students early yester- But even logistic
day, killing seven and leaving little uninterrupted, desp
left of the structure but its charred Iraqi Kurdish lead
frame and the stilts on which it of the most precise
stood. intelligence network
Six survivors were hospitalized try.
and released, including one who The Kurdish figh
jumped from the burning home middle of a vast an
and into a waterway, Mayor Deb- of relationships and
bie Smith said. The cause was being began with the Am
investigated. of Iraq.
"There were three kids sitting on As the war has
the ground screaming," said news- United States has c
paper deliverer Tim Burns, who increasingly on the
called 911 after seeing a column of ners in running Ira
smoke at the house. "There was one seers of the one part
guy hanging out the window, and
he jumped in the canal. I know he
got out because he was yelling for a
girl to follow him."
HIGHLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. E
Two teens arrested
in repeated grave The
vandalism Prince
The Oakland County sheriff says
authorities have arrested two teen-
agers as suspects in the repeated
vandalism of a southeastern Michi-
gan cemetery.
Michael Bouchard says detec-
tives. got tips last week that led
them to suspect that a 13-year-old
and a 14-year-old girl were behind
the damage to 35 grave sites at
Highland Cemetery. It has 8,500
graves and is in Highland Town-
ship, about 15 miles west of Pon-
tiac. To play: Comp:
The attacks happened in Sep- and every
tember and October, and some
headstones dating back to the 1870s
were broken. There i
- Compiled from juSt use |i
Daily wire reports
Difficult
4
Number of American service mem- 5
hers who have died in the war in
Iraq, according to The Associated
Press. The Department of Defense
identified the following casualties
over the weekend: 9
Staff Sgt. Robin L. Towns Sr.,
52, of Upper Marlboro, Md. 7
Pfc. Adam J. Chitjian, 39, of
r Philadelphia, Pa.
Sgt. Joshua C. Brennan, 22, of
Ontario, Ore.
Spc. David E. Lambert, 39, of
Cedar Bluff, Va.
'dish rebels
ve in Iraq
oup is
etween
sh forces
AVERNISE
k Times
- A low-slung
ff a steep moun-
e beginning of
s remote corner
d here, Kurdish
urkey, fly their
te urgent inter-
urb them, they
eiving supplies
rucks less than
ernment check-
good," said one
heaping spoon-
s steaming tea.
e rebels' leader
now in a Turk-
en painted on a
the Kurdistan
PKK, is at the
between Tur-
egan when the
led 12 Turkish
ay, prompting
mber, to threat-
nited Statesput
Iraq's Kurdish
1 the northern
els hide, with a
rtment official
buke last week
ction" in curb-
cretary of State
heduled to visit
gweek, Kurdish
med in no hurry
is out of the
e, as the rugged
possible to dis-
ps means war
Azad Jindyany,
fficial in Sulai-
's capital. "We
to do that. We
d we failed."
al flows remain
ite the fact that
ers have some
and extensive
ks in the coun-
ters are in the
d complex web
ambitions that
erican invasion
worsened, the
ome to depend
Kurds as part-
q, and as over-
t of the country
where some of their original aspi-
rations are actually being met.
Iraqi Kurdish officials for their
part appear to be politely ignoring
American calls for action, saying
the only serious solution is political,
not military. They have taken their
own path, allowing the guerrillas
to exist on their territory, while at
the same time quietly tryingto per-
suade them to stop attacks.
"They have allowed the PKK to
be up there," said Mark Parris, a
former American ambassador to
Turkey who is now at the Brookings
Institution. "That couldn't have
happened without their permitting
them to be there. That's their turf.
It's as simple as that."
The situation poses a puzzle
to the United States, which badly
wants to avert a new front in the
war, but finds itself forced to choose
between two trusted allies -- Tur-
key, a NATO member whose terri-
tory is the transit area for most of
its air cargo to Iraq, and the Kurds,
their closest partners in Iraq.
The United States "is like a man
withtwowives,"said oneIraqiKurd
in Sulaimaniya, the regional capital.
"They quarrel, but he doesn't want
to lose either of them."
Kurds are one of the world's larg-
est ethnic groups without a state,
numbering more than 25 million,
spread across Turkey, Iraq, Iran,
and Syria. Most live in Turkey,
which has curtailed their rights,
fearing secession. The PKK wants
an autonomous Kurdish area in
eastern Turkey, and has repeatedly
attacked the Turkish military, and
sometimes the civilian population,
since the 1980s, in a conflict that
has left more than 30,000 dead.
In this small town a short drive
from the edge of rebel territory,
and in Sulaimaniya, 55 miles to
the south, it is business as usual.
A political party affiliated with
the rebel group is open and hold-
ing meetings. Pickup trucks zip in
and out of the group's territory, and
a government checkpoint a short
drive away from the area acts as a
friendly tour guide. Its soldiers said
they had waved through eight cars
of journalists on one day last week.
Mala Bakhtyar, a senior member
in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan,
the party that governs this north-
eastern region, said that there had
been no explicit orders from Bagh-
dad to limit the PKK, and scoffed
at last week's staterment by the
Iraqi prime minister, Nouri Kamal
al-Maliki, that Iraq would close
the PKK's offices, saying they had
already been shut long ago.
"They are guests, but they are
making their living by themselves,"
Bakhtyar said. "We don't support
them."
He added, "We don't agree with
them. We don't like to make a fight
with Turkey."
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