Tuz Khurmatu, Daquq to shift under Kirkuk command

Shafaq News- Kirkuk

Kirkuk authorities are preparing to restructure security deployments in Tuz Khurmatu and Daquq, head of the provincial Security and Defense Committee told Shafaq News on Sunday.

Ahmed Ramzi Kuperlu said troops currently stationed in the two districts would be replaced by brigades from other areas, with operational responsibility shifting from the East Saladin Operations Command to the Kirkuk Operations Command.

The measures aim to redistribute forces and duties under a revised deployments map, while no deadline has been set for completing the changes.

An informed source told Shafaq News earlier this week that Iraq’s military had decided to dissolve the East Tigris Operations Command, which oversees security from southern Kirkuk to Tuz Khurmatu in neighboring Saladin province. Military authorities would redistribute its troops and duties, while the areas previously under its command would remain under security coverage within a new structure to be adopted by the General Command of the Armed Forces.

Kirkuk and Tuz Khurmatu are among the territories contested between Iraq's government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Turkmen Parliamentary Bloc leader Ersat Salihi called for Baghdad forces to remain in both areas, arguing that their presence has helped maintain stability and warning against steps that could renew tensions.

A Saladin Provincial Council member later denied “reports that Iraqi army units had withdrawn from the outskirts of Kirkuk and Tuz Khurmatu and been replaced by Kurdistan’s Peshmerga forces.”

Kirkuk, home to Kurdish, Arab, and Turkmen communities, has long been at the center of territorial disputes between Baghdad and Erbil. Article 140 of Iraq's post-2003 Constitution established a process to address demographic changes carried out under Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime and determine the status of Kirkuk and other disputed territories, but the process has never been completed. Peshmerga took control of Kirkuk during the ISIS offensive in 2014 before Iraqi forces reasserted control in October 2017.

Read more: Discover Iraq: Kirkuk, a city of oil, culture, and conflict