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SPECIAL FEATURESNov. 2006 - Sept. 2007

Hot Zone Update: Iraq

U.S. troops are caught in the middle of a fight for oil and power in Kirkuk.

By Kevin Sites, Mon Sep 17, 10:24 PM ET

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Global conflicts continue to rage around the world; though we can't cover all of them at the same time, we're committed to keeping you informed by bringing you timely updates from sources we trust, including journalistic colleagues and freelancers.

This week we're featuring the work of a tireless freelance correspondent named Doug Grindle, who has made his primary focus the coverage of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Grindle usually spends eight weeks in each of the theaters of operation filing television reports for local broadcast affiliates around the country. Learn more about Grindle here.

We asked him to prepare this report about challenges facing U.S. forces in the northern city of Kirkuk, where violence constantly simmers as an ethnically mixed population of Kurds, Turkomans and Arabs vies for power and control of the region's vast oil reserves.


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Comments

Join the discussion. Here you'll see the comments in the order they were posted.

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1
The city of Kirkuk once belong to the Kurds as shown on the old map of Kurdistan, way back before the Ottoman Empire or the Persian Empire stablished their own extinction.It is therefore their right to take it back. This land is not belong to either the Turkoman or the Arabs. The whole world knows it. Dig the history and all the facts are there!!!!!
Posted by btr231v6 on Tue, Sep 18, 2007 6:31 AM ET
2
By the way, what happened to the treaty of Sevres? Is the UN can override the Treaty of Laussanne to give back the right of the Kurds to regain their own land as promised, or mentioned by the Treaty of Sevres?
Posted by btr231v6 on Wed, Sep 19, 2007 4:47 AM ET
3
"It is therefore their right to take it back." Following this logic means American Indians have the right to fight back for all their land in America. Most Americans wouldn't take the view: "well in the 1600s the Indians DID own all the land so let's just walk off and give it back, if they insist." American Indians may have that right to try to get their land back; but I've no doubt given the current state of affairs in America - they'd get a fight to stop them. Same in Kirkuk?
Posted by tprovenz on Wed, Sep 19, 2007 9:49 AM ET
4
Your opinion is deeply a different situation of what was mentioned here. My assumption is based on the forgotten treaty that was promised to the Kurds,the 1920 Treaty of Sevres. The autonomy region of Kurdistan ( NORTHERN IRAQ) was just part of pie, of the mentioned Treaty . My question is this, why consider this people as a terrorist fighting for their freedom? I mean the Kurds seperatist (PUK?, from Turkey?)
Posted by btr231v6 on Fri, Sep 21, 2007 9:29 AM ET
5
Correction on post #4: PKK not PUK.
Posted by btr231v6 on Fri, Sep 21, 2007 9:36 AM ET
6
History is full of nations overtaking nations. What happened during the Ottoman Empire is ancient history. If they were going to fight to regain their lands, they should have regrouped and done it then. A couple of hundred years later is a bit too late. Does anyone have a paper trail from back then to prove a certain plot of land was taken from their now dead, buried and gone to dust ancestors? Maybe the Kurds would like to have a section of land set aside for them the way Israel did for the Palestinians. If you are free enough to own property anyplace you live, does it matter what the name of the country is? The face of the map is in constant transition anyway.
Posted by tizme_annie on Fri, Sep 21, 2007 3:53 PM ET
7
To Post # 6-----Paper trail? Have you really tried to do a reseach what is the Treaty of Sevres and the Treaty of Lausanne is all about? Why try to argue something that you don't fully understand? Do you consider the current Autonomous region of Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) a paper trail? What was mentioned in this 2 Treaties are facts. Just punch the word Kurdistan in NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC .com and all the answer is there.....By the way, I am ot trying to argue to anyone, I'm just trying to express my point of view. You don't have to like it, or you don't have to hate it...
Posted by btr231v6 on Sat, Sep 22, 2007 4:35 AM ET
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in memoriam

The Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone team dedicates this site to Marla Ruzicka, a fearless voice of compassion, who was killed in Iraq on April 16, 2005, while trying to lessen the suffering of others. For more information, see Civic Worldwide.