Iraq’s Turkmen are now wading in to the growing "regions" fray, calling on the central government to create two new provinces in northern Iraq and give them regional status. The districts in question are Tuz Khormato in Salah ad Din province and Tal Afar in Ninewa. A Turkmen representative in the National Alliance, Fawzi, Akram Tarzi, said those areas had suffered from injustice and lack of services in the past. He is also confident that giving the multi-ethnic districts a new status would not undermine national unity. Parliament Speaker Usama Nujaifi supported Tarzi’s statement by separately adding that the constitution permits such regions.
Recently, Salah ad Din province, where Tuz Khormato is located, started its own bid to reclassify itself as an autonomous region, much in the style of Iraqi Kurdistan. The bid is in response to the arrests of Sunni Arabs under the guise of a Ba’ath Party crackdown. They were followed by Diyala province. Basra and other southern provinces have long been pursuing similar paths as well.
Across the country, at least four Iraqis were killed and 10 more were wounded.
In Baghdad, a bomb wounded four civilians near an entrance to Sadr City. Two policemen were wounded when gunmen shot at their Jamiaa checkpoint. Three civilians were wounded during a blast at a Bayaa garage. Three bombers were killed as they approached a checkpoint.
A Sadrist member was shot to death in Jbela.
In Baquba, a civilian was wounded during a blast that damaged a house.
A bomb targeting a Sahwa leader in Bani Saad left no casualties.
A U.S. convoy in Qadisiya was the target of a roadside bomb blast. No casualties were as yet reported; however, there were wounded in a bombing last week in Diwaniya.
