Sunni Arabs in Kirkuk have asked Baghdad to double the number of Sunni militia in the Hashd al-Watani for the Hawija assault.
The Sunni Arabs are divided into two groups. One group want the Peshmerga to participate in the Hawija offensive. The other group oppose Peshmerga participation.
“Neither our Shiite brothers nor our Kurdish brothers allowed us to take up arms and protect our regions,” Saadon Afandi, Head of the Iraqi Arab Republicans Bloc told Rudaw. “We need more fighters as well as Peshmerga support for Hawija offensive and its security, because it was just Peshmerga that protected Kirkuk.”
Hawija Hashd al-Watanni has some 750 members.Baghdad has pledged to recruit 500 more militiamen. Sunni Arabs who want go to Hawija alongside the Iraqi army want more fighters.
“We will have a meeting with Haider al-Abadi in next two or three days to decide the final number of fighters of the Hawija Hashd al-Watani,” said Iraqi MP Khaled Mufraji.
“We want just Iraqi army and Hashd to participate in the offensive,” Mufraji added. “This force [Hashd al-Watani] benefits the Iraqi Central Government.”
Kirkuk Provincial Council suspects the force and believes there might be other plans behind it.
“We have seen Shiite and Sunni militias before. They are not legal military forces, so we don’t want them in this region,”Muhammad Kamal, Member of Kirkuk Security Committee told Rudaw.
“Peshmerga protects Kirkuk, and police and security forces protect inside the city,” Kamad said.
The Kurdish Peshmerga see the Hawija offensive as a significant operation to keep ISIS threats away from Kirkuk .
