Eurasia Press & News
The region hopes that its security role will yield financial benefits and attract foreign aid amid an unprecedented economic crisis.
Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq said on Monday they had foiled a planned attack on foreign diplomats in their autonomous regional capital of Erbil, more than a year after the killing of a Turkish consular official there.
In a statement, the Kurdistan regional government’s top security agency said the attack was planned by people linked to the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has waged a decades-long insurgency in neighbouring Turkey.
The announcement comes as the PKK is under unprecedented pressure from a Turkish military assault on its bases in northern Iraq and from Iraqi and Kurdish authorities that want to eject it from areas along the Syrian border.
Even as much of Iraq has witnessed destruction and turmoil since 2003, the Kurdistan region has managed to maintain relative stability.
The Kurdish security apparatus is largely viewed as competent and cohesive compared to the central state’s security and military forces, which nearly collapsed when elements of the ISIS terror group attacked and occupied nearly a third of the country in 2014.
Kurdistan has often promoted its security advantage to gain the confidence of regional and international partners.
By strictly controlling PKK elements and carrying out preemptive operations against them, Kurdish authorities appear to be sending reassuring messages to Turkey that it remains a strong partner in the autonomous region committed to maintaining security and stability.
The region also offers its lands as an alternative safe haven for American forces.
Washington has begun to withdraw from many of its stations in Iraq after being exposed to limited threats from pro-Iran Shia militias.
Pro-Iran militias’ attacks on US interests have come close to the US Embassy in Baghdad, prompting Washington to threaten to withdraw its diplomatic mission from the country at a time when Kurdistan appears ready to receive and efficiently secure US interests.
The region hopes that its security role will yield financial benefits and attract foreign aid amid an unprecedented economic crisis.
With a budget almost bled dry and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) facing $28 billion in debt, it was decided last June to slash civil servants’ salaries by 21%.
But even with the cuts, the government has been unable to pay the wages on time. The region’s financial crisis has been worsened by the Iraqi central government’s move to stop transferring oil revenue due to the decline in prices, depriving Erbil of its share of the federal budget.
The Kurdish government’s announcement that it had thwarted the PKK’s plan came as the party faces unprecedented pressure from a Turkish army attack on its bases in northern Iraq and from Iraqi and Kurdish authorities who want to push it out of areas on the Syrian border.
–Aborted plots —
A statement by the Kurdistan Regional Security Council stated that “in recent days the security forces thwarted a series of sabotage attacks, and a group of people with ties to terrorist groups was arrested.”
The statement indicated that security forces arrested 12 suspects, including two who were holding Syrian nationality inside the region with links to the PKK, explaining, “These individuals are involved in planning attacks on consulates and assassinating diplomats, in addition to attacks on capital owners and private companies operating in the region.”
The statement noted the arrest of other suspects residing in several European countries in cooperation with Interpol. It explained that regional security authorities thwarted the suspects’ scheme after four months of investigations.
The statement also noted that regional authorities had arrested 15 Iraqi citizens planning to carry out assassinations and acts of violence.
“Eight of these suspects were planning to assassinate a governor of the region, and they carried out violent acts in Dohuk governorate,” it added.
The other seven detainees are accused of “planning violence and tampering with security in the region.”
The council also announced in its statement that other suspects are continuing to be placed under arrest, “some of whom are part of a network that was established years ago, aiming to collect intelligence and military information on the region’s institutions and officials.”
This indicates that those still wanted by security forces “planned to assassinate a senior security official and a judge, and they also shared information with other parties, including the PKK,” it said.
The statement concluded that foreign governments, institutions and the relevant intelligence agencies had been informed.
Information obtained by the Kurdistan Regional Security Council has also been shared, the statement said.
The thwarted operations, the council said, show continued threats to peace and security in Kurdistan, noting that “security forces do their part and do not allow tampering with security and peace.”
An official from a PKK-linked Kurdish political group denied links to planned attacks.
In recent months, the PKK has faced one of the fiercest Turkish military attacks on its bases inside Iraqi territory.
A security and reconstruction agreement between Erbil and Baghdad aims to expel all PKK members from the town of Sinjar on the road between Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, and the Syrian border.
The Kurdish government in Erbil, which is dominated by the Kurdistan Democratic Party led by the Barzani family, considers the PKK its opponent, while it has interests with Turkey, chiefly its reliance on Turkish pipelines to export oil.
The PKK has been launching attacks against Turkey from bases in mountainous areas in northern Iraq, and in recent years has established a base in north-eastern Syria through the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) allied with it.
Ankara has been targeting the PKK in the two regions, but its incursion into Iraq this year is considered one of its largest operations against the party there.
The incursion came as part of Turkey’s efforts to increase its military status in the region, despite formal objections from Iraq’s central government and regional Kurdish authorities following the killing of at least two Iraqi border guards last August in a Turkish drone strike.
In July last year, a gunman shot dead a Turkish diplomat in a restaurant in the city of Erbil, weeks after the start of another Turkish incursion into Iraq against the PKK.
In leaked private conversations, Kurdish officials accused the PKK of being responsible for the killing of the Turkish diplomat. They said he was seeking to launch similar attacks in Kurdistan.
