Bloody power struggles continue in Iraq’s disputed territories
A rash of kidnappings, ambushes and bombs in Tuz Khormato are aggravating tensions between the ethnic components of the city despite efforts to balance security forces along sectarian lines.
TUZ KHORMATO, Iraq — The security situation in Tuz Khormato continues to deteriorate. On June 18, a car bomb exploded just outside the local headquarters of the largest Kurdish political party in the area, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, leaving three people dead.
The city's chief of police, Col. Mustafa Hassan Naseif Amerli, told Al-Monitor in an interview in late May that only two Sunni Arabs had been kidnapped in Tuz Khormato over the previous two months, presenting the figure as a sign of improved security.
A few weeks later, Amerli would be dead as well.
The restive area around Tuz Khormato has long been disputed between the Kurdish Regional Government-administered north and the Iraqi central government.
