OE Watch Commentary: The presence of Shiite militias and their treatment of residents is creating grievances among residents of the Kirkuk Governorate. The accompanying article is an excerpted transcript of an interview with Najmaldin Karim, the former Governor of Kirkuk, conducted by Kurdistan 24, broadcasting from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. In the interview, Karim assesses the current situation in the city and warns about the possibility of the resurgence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Kirkuk.
According to Karim, the situation in the city is dire, as the Shiite militias insert their control alongside the Iraqi Federal Police. He states that the influence of Iran in Iraq’s Interior Ministry through a senior figure in the Badr Organization, an armed group supported by Tehran for decades, is not helping the situation. Karim mentioned that Shiite militias have arrested people without warrants and taken money from shopkeepers and that nobody can run a business without paying the Shiite militias. There are several armed organizations operating in Kirkuk, including Turkmen Shiite militias and Asa’ib Ahl-al-Haq, the latter headed by Qais al-Khazali, who with the help of Iran was involved in attacking coalition forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Karim also notes that basic services like electricity and garbage collection are not being provided consistently. In this chaotic atmosphere, ISIS is reemerging, as it never really disappeared from Kirkuk. He stated that when Iraqi forces took Hawija, there was no fight because ISIS members just went home and changed their clothes. The former governor also noted that what happened in Afghanistan after ousting the Taliban might happen in Iraq. He believes that like the Taliban, ISIS will likely come back. End OE Watch Commentary (Gunduz)
The current situation in the city is “not good,” Karim explained. “Kirkuk is really occupied by Shiite militias.” There are also Federal police, but they are “the same thing.” Iraq’s Interior Ministry is headed by a senior figure in the Badr Organization, an armed group that Tehran has supported for decades, going back to the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
“The Shiite militias are part of the problem” in Kirkuk, Karim said. “They arrest people” arbitrarily, without arrest warrants. “They take money from shopkeepers,” he continued. “Nobody can run a business now, if they don’t pay a faction of the Shiite militias.”
Moreover, as Karim explained, “It’s not just one group.” The armed organizations in Kirkuk include: Turkmen Shiite militias; Asa’ib Ahl-al-Haq, headed by Qais al-Khazali, who was involved, with Iranian support, in attacking coalition forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom; as well as the Badr Organization, to name but a few.
In this chaos, IS is re-emerging, Karim warned. IS “never disappeared from Kirkuk.” “When Huweija was taken by the Iraqi forces, there was no fight,” he explained. They just “went home, and they changed their clothes.” Karim fears that “what we saw happen in Afghanistan after the Taliban were ousted” and then they came back, will also happen in Iraq.