foto8 Iraqi Kurdistan by J B Russell p4/6


	IRAQI KURDISTAN by J. B. Russell

				For several years, the regime in Baghdad has been forcibly deporting thousands of Kurdish families from the Kurdish city of Kirkuk, an important and strategic oil producing area still held by Baghdad. Iraqi Arabs are moved into the vacated Kurdish homes in an attempt to "Arabize" the city.
	They have carried out numerous attacks, bombings and assassinations against targets in secular, democratic Iraqi Kurdistan. Kurdish Peshmerga - those who face death - fighters are deployed around the enclave in an attempt to contain the group. Saddam’s secret service, the Mokhaberat, also infiltrates Iraqi Kurdistan to conduct assassinations and to destabilize the region.