Iraqi unit wants Kurdish flags on Peshmerga graves in Kirkuk removed: family
It is forbidden to publicly hoist the Kurdistan flag in Kirkuk since the Iraqi takeover in October.
“Yesterday the Iraqi counterterrorism force notified my family that if the Kurdistan flag is not removed from over the grave of our martyr, they will remove it themselves. Thus, we are forced to remove it,” Ahmed Aziz, the brother of fallen Peshmerga Dashti, told Rudaw.
Dashti was a Peshmerga officer killed in an ambush by ISIS militants in Kirkuk.
The request comes on the anniversary of the Kurdistan flag being raised over state buildings in Kirkuk.
The Kurdistan flag was hoisted, albeit in a position lower than the Iraqi standard, on the castle of Kirkuk during Newroz celebrations in the city.
Videos circulating online, however, show Kurdish youths being beaten by Iraqi security forces while trying to publically celebrate.
This year the Kurdish population of the city was not able to commemorate ‘Kurdish clothes day’ in the public manner of previous years.
Kirkuk was taken over by Baghdad on October 16 after Peshmerga forces pulled out in the face of a major assault.
Oil-rich Kirkuk is a flashpoint between Erbil and Baghdad, which both stake a claim to the province.
Since the Peshmerga withdrawal, the city and wider province have experienced a serious deterioration in security, with ISIS sleeper cells launching attacks against Iraqi and Hashd al-Shaabi forces and oil facilities.