NYT: Bridge Bombing Increases Tensions in Northern Iraq

[ProSense]

Bridge Bombing Increases Tensions in Northern Iraq

By DAMIEN CAVE
Published: June 3, 2007

BAGHDAD, June 2 — Bomb blasts severely damaged a bridge linking a highway from Baghdad with the northern city of Kirkuk on Saturday, the police and witnesses said, heightening tensions between Arabs and Kurds and forcing traffic to detour through some of the most dangerous areas of Diyala Province.

An American tank firing at insurgents near Falluja also killed three Iraqi children on Saturday, according to a military statement, and an American helicopter was damaged by gunfire north of Baghdad and forced to land.

In Baghdad, a barrage of mortar shells killed at least seven people.

The destruction of the Sarha bridge, about 100 miles north of Baghdad and one of the busiest crossings for vehicles moving between the capital and Kirkuk, appeared to be part of an effort by Sunni insurgents to isolate Kirkuk and limit interaction between residents of different areas and sects.

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It was the second bridge leading to Kirkuk bombed this week, local leaders said, and it came on a day when a prominent Sunni tribal leader was found dead south of the city after being kidnapped Friday.

The killing and the bridge bombing reflected rising tensions in the oil-rich area between Kurds and Sunni insurgents who oppose Kurdish plans to make the area part of the north’s Kurdish-controlled region.

The Iraqi Constitution calls for a referendum on the issue before the end of year and Iraqi and American officials have predicted that a rise in violence will precede the vote.

Increasing attacks are likely to heighten tensions with Iraq’s northern neighbor, Turkey, which has complained bitterly in recent weeks that Iraq has done nothing to control a Kurdish militant group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, in southern Turkey. Turkey says that the United States, its NATO ally, should do more to force Iraq to control the Kurds.

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[Ian David]

1. "Trade Center bombing increases tensions in New York."

The New York Times has such a gift for understatement, don't they?

"Bridge Bombing Increases Tensions in Northern Iraq"

They sure aren't The New York Post. "Headless Bridge Found in Bombed City."

[WCGreen]

2. CRack me right up.....

On a more serious note, it was only a matter of time before the Kurds became engaged in the war for oil revenues going on within the factions of Iraqi people...

The Sunni's have no direct access to the oil fields and they don't seem to be making any gains in Sh'ite controlled areas so maybe the Kurds and the Sunnis will be killing each other now...