Turkmen Front office attacked in northern Kirkuk

By Ali Mukarrem Garip

KIRKUK, Iraq

Unidentified assailants attacked an office of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) in Kirkuk city late Monday, said local police.

Kirkuk Police Department spokesperson Afrasyav Kamil told Anadolu Agency that people armed with RPGs and automatic rifles attacked ITF’s office in the Musalla neighborhood of Kirkuk.

Police arrived following the attack and cordoned off the area while an investigation was launched to detain the suspects, Kamil added.

Mutasam Kasapoglu, who is in charge of ITF’s Musalla office, said there were no casualties but there is material damage.

Kasapoglu said armed attacks against ITF’s offices are increasing and they want their offices to be protected by government forces.

"We want these kinds of attacks to be prevented by counter-terror police forces," he stressed.

More than 20 Turkmens in Kirkuk, including several politicians and professors, have been killed in attacks in the past four months.

Earlier this year, leading ITF member Alaa Eddine al-Salihi was gunned down in Kirkuk’s Al-Askari neighborhood by unknown assailants.

The most recent murder was that of Ali Almas, a Turkmen intellectual and professor at Kirkuk University.

Iraqi Turkmen, also known as Iraqi Turks, are a Turkic-speaking minority whose total population is estimated at some 3 million.

The Turkmen Front occupies two out of 328 seats in the Iraqi parliament and nine out of 41 seats in the Kirkuk provincial council.

Since October, Iraqi forces have controlled the entire province of Kirkuk following the withdrawal of Peshmerga forces from the region.