Community powderkeg ready to explode in Kirkuk despite official cool

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030921/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_kirkuk_tense&cid=1514&ncid=1480

KIRKUK, Iraq (AFP) - Simmering tensions between Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen in this northern Iraqi city could boil over at any time, but community leaders offer vocal support for US efforts to maintain calm.

"It's not tense but (there are) tense areas," said lieutenant-colonel Randy George, deputy commander of coalition forces in Kirkuk, 225 kilometres (140 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

"Some people come to create some problems. It could blow up any time," he warned.

Property disputes between Kurds and Arabs have yet to be resolved. Kurds expelled under the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein have returned to claim back their homes from Arab incomers.

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[bahrbearian]

1. Bill Kristol was saying

that was one of the bright spots to the Occupation , that, there is no ethnic battles going on... Like Predicted by the AntiWar crowd..

[leesa]

2. Funny. Only because they have overcome thousands of years of

fueding to unite against the US, Billy Boy!