Kerry urges Kurds to ‘stand with Baghdad’ in face of insurgency

US secretary of state John Kerry held crisis talks with leaders of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region today urging them to stand with Baghdad in the face of a Sunni insurgent onslaught that threatens to dismember the country.

Security forces fought Sunni armed factions for control of the country’s biggest oil refinery today and militants launched an attack on one of its largest air bases less than 100 km from the capital.

More than 1,000 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in less than three weeks, the United Nations said, calling the figure “very much a minimum”.

The figure includes unarmed government troops machinegunned in mass graves by insurgents, as well as several reported incidents of prisoners killed in their cells by retreating government forces.

Mr Kerry flew to the Kurdish region after a day in Baghdad on an emergency trip through the Middle East to rescue Iraq after a lightning advance by Sunni fighters led by an al-Qaeda offshoot, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis), also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

US officials believe that persuading the Kurds to stick with the political process in Baghdad is vital to keep Iraq from splitting apart. “If they decide to withdraw from the Baghdad political process it will accelerate a lot of the negative trends,” said a senior US state department official.

Kurdish leaders have made clear that the settlement keeping Iraq together as a state is now in jeopardy.

“We are facing a new reality and a new Iraq,” Kurdish president Massoud Barzani said at the start of his meeting with Mr Kerry. Earlier, he blamed prime minister Nuri al-Maliki’s “wrong policies” for the violence and called for him to quit, saying it was “very difficult” to imagine Iraq staying together.

The 5 million Kurds, who have ruled themselves within Iraq in relative peace since the US invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, have seized on this month’s chaos to expand their own territory, taking control of rich oil deposits.

Two days after the Sunni fighters launched their uprising by seizing the north’s biggest city Mosul, Kurdish troops took full control of Kirkuk, a city they consider their historic capital and which was abandoned by the fleeing Iraqi army.

The Kurds’ capture of Kirkuk, just outside the boundary of their autonomous zone, eliminates their main incentive to remain part of Iraq: its oil deposits could generate more revenue than the Kurds now receive from Baghdad as part of the settlement that has kept them from declaring independence.

Some senior Kurdish officials suggest in private they are no longer committed to Iraq and are biding their time for an opportunity to seek independence. In an interview with CNN, Barzani repeated a threat to hold a referendum on independence, saying it was time for Kurds to decide their own fate.

Washington has placed its hopes in forming a new, more inclusive government in Baghdad that would undermine the insurgency. Mr Kerry aims to convince Kurdish leaders to join it.

In Baghdad yesterday, Mr Kerry said Mr Maliki assured him the new parliament, elected two months ago, would sit by a July 1 deadline to start forming a new government. Mr Maliki is fighting to stay in power, under criticism for the ISIL-led advance.

Baghdad is racing against time as the insurgents consolidate their grip on Sunni provinces.

The Baiji refinery, a strategic industrial complex 200 km north of Baghdad, remained a frontline early today. Militants said late last night said they had seized it, but two government officials said troop reinforcements had been flown into the compound and fended off the assault.

Local tribal leaders said they were negotiating with both the government and Sunni fighters to allow the tribes to run the plant if Iraqi forces withdraw. One of the government officials said Baghdad wanted the tribes to break with Isis and other Sunni armed factions, and help defend the compound.

The plant has been fought over since last Wednesday, with sudden reversals for both sides and no clear winner so far.

Reuters