AP – Demonstrations in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk over the handover of a key facility from federal to local Kurdish authorities turned violent, and one protester was killed and several were injured, witnesses and local officials said.
Clashes broke out around the planned handover of the Iraqi federal police headquarters to the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) in the city, which is home to a mixed population of Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen.
Federal forces seized Kirkuk and the surrounding oil fields in October 2017 after Kurdish regional authorities organised a symbolic but controversial referendum for Kurdish independence.
The KDP vacated its headquarters in the city at the time. The agreement to form the current government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, included a provision for the return of the Kurdistan Democratic Party to the province.
Last week, a group of people from Kirkuk closed the Kirkuk-to-Erbil highway in protest over the re-opening of the KDP headquarter in Kirkuk.
On Saturday, Kurdish residents demanded the reopening of the highway, sparking tensions between the protesters and security forces.
Al-Sudani issued a directive instructing security forces to impose a curfew in Kirkuk as clashes erupted on Saturday between KDP supporters, Arab and Turkmen protesters and security forces.
In a statement, Masoud Barzani, the former president of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, decried the violence directed against Kurdish protesters and expressed disappointment with security forces.
Al-Sudani ordered the formation of an investigative committee to look into the circumstances of the death of one protester and the injury of others.
