Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Özeti
4 March 2013
Attackers 'kill Syrian soldiers' in Iraq
At least 40 Syrian soldiers and several Iraqis have been killed in western Iraq,
officials in Baghdad say.
THEY were among a group who fled across
the border into Iraq at the weekend to
escape an attack by rebel fighters.
They were being driven back to the border in
Anbar province when they were attacked by
gunmen, officials said.
Inside Syria, opposition activists said rebels
had overrun the northern city of Raqqa, in
what would be one of their biggest victories
of the conflict.
Unverified video footage was posted online,
showing a cheering crowd pulling down a statue
of Hafez Assad, the previous president
and father of the current President Bashar-al
Assad.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights (SOHR) said the rebels had "near-total
control" of Raqqa after days of fierce fighting.
A police chief was killed and two government
security officials were detained, SOHR said.
Opposition fighters already control suburbs
of the capital, Damascus, and parts of other
major cities such as Aleppo and Homs.
Raqqa has been a refuge for hundreds of
thousands of Syrians who fled the violence in
other parts of the country; many others have
Iraq parliament
passes budget despite
Kurdish boycott
BAGHDAD, March 7, 2013 - By Aseel Kami (Reuters)
THE IRAQI parliament passed the country's 2013 budget on
Thursday despite a boycott by Kurdish members in protest at the
amount allotted to pay oil companies operating in the autonomous
north, lawmakers said.
Iraq's cabinet approved the 138-trillion-Iraqi-dinar ($118.5 billion) budget
in October, but differences between Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions
repeatedly thwarted attempts by lawmakers to pass the draft
legislation in parliament.
Kurdish lawmakers boycotted the vote on Thursday, but 168 members
of parliament were present, ensuring the budget was passed, according
to a statement released by the parliament. A quorum is 163.
"We didn't attend the meeting," Kurdish MP Rawaz Khoshnaw said.
"None of our demands were included in the budget. This is a very dangerous
and alarming sign of what's coming in Iraq".
The standoff over the budget opened a new front in a long-running
feud over land and oil rights between the central government and
Iraq's Kurdish region, which in recent years has signed contracts on its
own terms with international oil companies.
Kurdistan says it is owed more than 4 trillion Iraqi dinars, or $3.5 bil-
fled to neighbouring countries.
Some 70,000 people have died in the conflict
which began with the uprising against
President Assad's rule two years ago.
'NEAR-TOTAL CONTROL'
The group of Syrian soldiers and government
employees had entered Iraq through the
Yaarubiyeh border in the northern Nineveh
province over the weekend, as anti-government
rebels launched an attack on the area.
They were being taken to the al-Waleed border
crossing further south in Anbar when they
were ambushed at Akashat, a senior Iraqi
official told Reuters.
"Gunmen set up an ambush and killed 40 of
them, plus some Iraqi soldiers who were protecting
the convoy," he added.
The identity of the gunmen is not known.
They appeared to have been well-prepared
for the assault, having with them roadside
bombs, automatic weapons and rocket-propelled
grenades, officials said.
Iraq and Syria share a 600km (372 mile) border,
and the government in Baghdad has
often expressed concern that the violence in
Syria could spill over into its own territory.
Anbar is a province dominated by Sunni
Muslims who have been protesting for more
than two months against the Shia-led government
they accuse of trying to marginalise
them.
The province has seen the formation of the
Free Iraqi Army, a group openly supporting its
fellow Sunnis in the rebel Free Syrian Army
which is fighting the government of President
Bashar al-Assad, whose own Alawite sect is
an offshoot of Shia Islam.
A spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister told
AFP news agency that the attack in Anbar
"confirms our fears of the attempt of some to
move the conflict to Iraq", but, he added,
"we will face these attempts by all sides with
all of our power".■
lion in total to cover the costs accumulated by oil companies operating
there over the past three years, but Baghdad rejects those contracts as
illegal.
The 2013 budget allocates 750 billion Iraqi dinars ($644.33 million) for
oil companies operating in the northern Kurdish enclave, which
include majors such as Exxon Mobil, Russia's Gazprom Neft and
Chevron Corp.
Some lawmakers from the Sunni-backed Iraqiya Bloc also boycotted
the session, saying that passing the budget without the Kurds on board
would lead to bigger problems.
"Today we laid the foundation stone in the project of dividing Iraq,
because to ignore one's partner and not listen to his demands will push
him to seek other options," said Jaber al-Jaberi, an Iraqiya MP among
those who boycotted the session.
"I expect the Kurds will go to the federal court to disrupt the budget".
The Kurds say the right to dictate their own oil policy is enshrined in
the country's federal constitution.
Kurdish crude used to be shipped to world markets through a
Baghdad-controlled pipeline running from Kirkuk to the Turkish port
of Ceyhan, but exports via that channel dried up in December due to
the payment row.
The 2013 budget is based on oil price of $90 and average exports of 2.9
mln barrels per day.
New legislation to govern the world's fourth largest oil reserves has
been caught up for years in parliament, which has been all but paralysed
since U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq over one year ago. ❍
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