Printer-friendly VersionThe Kurdish Globe
A group of children of different ages was playing football in non-uniform clothes. While kicking the ball, they also were looking carefully behind the dirt berm created around their village. As soon as they saw the camera, they rushed into the nearest house.
The village is called Khazna, 15 kemeteres east of Mosul city. It was exposed to a deadly attack last month. Two trucks laden with explosives blew up inside the village, leaving more 150 dead or wounded and nearly 50 homes destroyed.
Concerning their village, which now is surrounded by dirt berms, and fearing further bombers, Abdul-Rahman Munim Bawar, 45, explained: "It is impossible to live in-between berms." He added that their children feel more frightened at seeing berms and tightened security measures around them. Bawar lessens his worry about the security measures set for protecting them. "I cannot say it is not important to have berms and security measures around us because the terrorists have targeted us; but nothing can stop a suicide attacker if wants to explode himself. Life inside berms is like an open prison and always we expect something we don't know to happen."
The situation is similar in several villages north and east of Telkif town near Mosul.
The head of Telkif municipality, Bashar Kiki, explained that the digging and creating of berms continues in all villages in the area to protect the multi-ethnical components there.
"Every village, every component is targeted. The terror is blind. People are more frightened now especially after the latest attacks. Their fear increases during funeral gatherings," said Kiki, noting that the berms are being constructed as people feel insufficient security protection in areas belonging to Ninaewa province. Villagers also keep personal guns and guard themselves in groups, he noted.
A weak administration after the last provincial elections and preparing for Iraqi legislative January elections are two reasons fear has increased among people, said the municipality official. He also said that recently, local security forces announced the arrest of an insurgent group aiming to attack villages inhabited by Yazidis, Christians, Turkmen, and Shabaks.
Relevantly, spokesman of the Iraqi Defense Ministry, Mohammed al-Askari, announced that Iraqi forces arrested 140 wanted people belonging to al-Qaeda and to the former Ba'ath Party; this was during the first four days of the current month.
These areas are a part of the disputed areas committed to the constitutional Article 140.
The deteriorating situation in Ninawa province was considered by the international Crises Group, which recently published a report stating that "solving the mounting Ninewa crisis is seen in an urgent Kurdish-Arab agreement for sharing authority and arranging common patrol in the disputed areas, as well as protecting the minorities in addition to merging Kurdish forces with federal forces."
The Crises Group calls on the governments of Erbil and Baghdad to solve the problems about the disputed areas and agree on administrating natural wealth and distributing authority.
Dirt berms are found in the villages of Kuba, Shrekhan, Sada, Bawiz, and Khazana, which are inhabited by Shiite Arabs, Kurds, Shabaks, Yazidis, Christians, and Turkmen. There are eight villages inhabited by Sunni Arabs also around Telkif, and they don't have berms. Abdul-Kareem Ali Mahmoud, from Rakaba Hamandan, which is one of those villages, said they create barriers although "the area is not safe and we don't create berms until now because we have our people--groups of guards protecting the villages."
Media reported the formation of a common force including elements of the Iraqi army, Kurdish Peshmarga, and American troops to protect the disputed areas. This issue is still being debated and hasn't materialized, said the Telkif head of municipality.