SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – For Ammar, a Shiite Arab from Baghdad who came to the Kurdistan Region to visit relatives, nothing was going right, as he tried to find someone who would drive him back to the capital.
“My dad is paralyzed and stays in; I have not seen my kids for 18 days. Why can’t we go back to our kids?” he asked, as he looked for transportation back to his home, at a time when the country has been plunged in turmoil under a Sunni insurgency ignited by jihadi-led rebels who are sweeping across Iraq and vow to storm Baghdad.
“Taxi drivers asks for 100 thousand dinars per passenger to Baghdad and they are not sure whether they will make it to Baghdad or not,” complained Ammar, who traveled to Iraqi Kurdistan 20 days ago. “They hike the price as they wish, and the central government does not support us in any way.”
At the terminal, other than the Baghdad line, all other routes were busy with passengers, as if Baghdad no longer existed on the map.
“Taxi drivers ask for 100 thousand dinars and I only have 75 thousand dinars,” complained another Arab, who did not wish to give his name. “The buses are affordable but there is no bus service at the moment. I don’t know what to do. I am sleeping with my kids in the parks and street lawns at night,” he said.
Reaching Baghdad for the passengers has now turned into a dream. Passengers said they had been shown kindness by the Kurds, with a restaurant owner feeding them one day for free.
Shiite and Sunni passengers are not the only ones suffering from the turmoil. Taxi drivers taking passengers to Baghdad find themselves in a pinch. Kurdish taxi drivers are worried about the threats of terrorist groups on the road to Baghdad. Arab taxi drivers continue to take passengers, but at exorbitant rates.
“Not here, not there, not on the road; we don’t have anyone to care about us,” complained Jeza Beseri, supervisor of the Baghdad line at the Sulaimani terminal. “Arab drivers continue to work, but Kurdish drivers have lost their business.”
“Kurds rarely travel to Baghdad, but Arabs often visit here and they have jobs here,” said a Kurdish taxi driver who was arrested by a group of militants a few days ago. “We were lucky they did not kill us,” he added, fishing out a bullet from his pocket as he spoke. “This is one of the bullets they fired at us.”
Besides the militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the Iraqi army, there are some terrorist and mafia groups on the road that make it difficult for us,” the driver added.
“There is no business left for us. If the government does not find any solution for us, we will end up burning our cars,” barked one Kurdish driver in anger.
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