Iraqi army won't deploy in Kurdistan region, official says

Iraqi army won't deploy in Kurdistan region, official says

kurdsatnews

Nov 29, 2022

Iraqi border guards on the Iran-Iraq border, November 29, 2022.

Today, Tuesday, Member of the House of Representatives Defense and Security Committee Karim Shukur told KurdSat English, "I don't understand the word out there saying Federal Government forces would be deployed in the Kurdistan region, it not true and until now in the defense and security committee we have not brought up the issue." Some Iraqi media reported plans to deploy the Iraqi army in the Kurdistan region to prevent repeated Turkish and Iranian bombardments that have left many dead and displaced hundreds of families.

"There are three battalion on the borders of the Kurdistan region, and we have discussed reinforcing and better equipping the battalions or setting up other battalions," Shukur said.

According to the constitution, it is up to the border guards to protect the borders of the Kurdistan region and not any other forces, the lawmaker added.

Iran and Turkey usually cite the presence of groups that "threaten their security" in Iraq as an excuse to carry out operations to remove them. "If we reinforce and increase of the number of current border guards then we take away excuses from Iran and Turkey that use them to attack the Kurdistan region, they claim that armed groups sneak to their countries from our borders, but if our border guards control the whole borders then the problem will gradually disappear," Shukur explained.

The border guards deployed on the borders between the Kurdistan region, Turkey and Iran that report to Baghdad and not Erbil are mostly Kurds living in the Kurdistan region.

Iranian and Turkish opposition groups are on the border between the Kurdistan region and Turkey and the region and Iraq, which Ankara and Tehran frequently bomb.

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