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Kurds Protest Iraqi Forces Sent To Disputed Region on Syrian Border

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki deploys forces to the Sinjar province, near the Syrian border, upsetting local Kurds and signaling an escalation of the Syrian conflict to Iraq, reports Abdel Hamid Zebari.
A Kurdish Peshmerga soldier holds a Kurdistan flag during a deployment in the area near the northern Iraqi border with Syria, which lies in an area disputed by Baghdad and the Kurdish region of Ninawa province, August 6, 2012. Picture taken August 6, 2012.   REUTERS/Azad Lashkari (IRAQ - Tags: CONFLICT POLITICS MILITARY) - RTR3B87N
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It appears that a new conflict is brewing on the horizon between Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the central Iraqi government headed by Nouri al-Maliki, following the latter’s announcement of the formation of a military force under the name of the “al-Jazeera and Badiya Force” headquartered in the city of Sinjar, which is part of disputed areas in Nineveh Province bordering Syria.

This new military dispute between Erbil and Baghdad comes a few months after the controversy of the Iraqi “Dijla (Tigris) Force,” which was stationed on the outskirts of Kirkuk and remains there, ready to face off against the Kurdish Peshmerga troops sent to the region.

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