Supporters of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) blocked the main Kirkuk-Erbil highway for days in protest of a decree from Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani which called for the evacuation of the Joint Operations Command (JOC) headquarters in the province in preparation for the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) return to its offices.
As the city’s disgruntled Kurdish majority staged a counter-protest, Iraqi security forces opened fire and killed at least four Kurdish protesters.
“Our visit will be to investigate the causes of the tensions and those responsible for the incidents and the background of the incidents. We will clarify the negligent parties and all the details before submitting a report to the parliament,” Sagvan Sindi, deputy chairman of the security and defense committee, told Rudaw’s Hemin Baban on Tuesday.
The committee is set to meet with Kirkuk Acting Governor Rakan al-Jabouri, the Kirkuk operations command, and several other security and executive officials from the province, according to Sindi.
During Saturday’s parliamentary session, Iraq’s Parliamentary Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi ordered the committee to visit Kirkuk and investigate the details surrounding the deadly unrest.
Shakhawan Abdullah, the Iraqi parliament’s second deputy speaker, said they had identified two main suspects from the security forces responsible for the killing and wounding of the Kurdish protesters.
The PMF protesters ended their sit-in on the morning following the unrest, but a convoy of armored vehicles were deployed to the JOC headquarters, which further worried the Kurdish residents of Kirkuk.
Abdullah said that all the armored vehicles have now been removed from Kurdish neighborhoods.
Hours after the violence in Kirkuk, Sudani ordered the formation of an investigative committee into the deaths and injuries at the protests, vowing to bring the “negligent ones” to justice on account of the violence that transpired. The Iraqi PM said during his meeting with the journalists that several suspects have already been arrested and that the findings of the investigations will be announced shortly.
