Abdul Rahman Mustafa, the Kurdish governor of Kirkuk province, said the reports of abductions were "not true," although prisoners were often transferred to other provinces to relieve crowding. Jalal Jawhar, who heads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Kirkuk, said some suspects were transferred to prisons in Irbil and Sulaymaniyah with the "complete cooperation" of the U.S. military.
"This is a normal procedure," Jawhar said.
Maj. Darren Blagburn, intelligence officer for the 116th Brigade Combat Team in Kirkuk, acknowledged that Arab and Turkmen detainees were surreptitiously transferred to Kurdish prisons without judicial oversight. He denied any U.S. role in the transfers and said they were necessary because of crowding in Kirkuk's jails.
Blagburn said he and other U.S. officers intervened with Kurdish leaders after discovering the practice nearly a month ago. He said he was "pretty sure" the practice had ended.
"We put a stop to it," Blagburn said, adding: "One of the myths is that it is spiraling out of control and nobody is doing anything about it and nobody cares. That is absolutely not true."
But across an already tense political landscape in Kirkuk, the campaign has deepened a climate of fear and intimidation.
Gen. Turhan Yusuf Abdel-Rahman, the chief of Kirkuk's police force, described the abductions as "political kidnappings" orchestrated by the Kurdish parties and their intelligence arms. Abdel-Rahman, who is Turkmen, said at least four Arabs and one Turkmen were seized last week but that "there may be others." On Sunday, two days after Blagburn's remarks, the U.S. military received reports that nine more Arabs and Turkmens were missing.
Abdel-Rahman said his officers were taking part in the majority of the abductions despite his attempts to stop the practice. He said 40 percent of Kirkuk's 6,120-member police force was loyal to the two Kurdish political parties. Acting on the parties' orders, uniformed officers carried out the abductions using the police department's cars and pickup trucks, he said.
"The main problem is that the loyalty to the police is to the parties and not the police force," said Abdel-Rahman, 41, a career officer. "They'll obey the parties' orders and disobey us."
Abdel-Rahman said he was deeply frustrated. "People ask us about their sons. What should I say to them?"
History of Struggle
The struggle for Kirkuk draws on the city's tortured history. In a policy known as Arabization, President Saddam Hussein drove out thousands of Kurds and replaced them with Arabs from areas to the south. That step was part of a larger strategy to depopulate the region of Kurds, an effort that peaked at the end of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. In all, at least 100,000 Kurds were killed and 2,000 villages destroyed as Hussein took revenge for Kurdish support of Iran during the conflict.
After Hussein's fall, the Kurdish parties seized control of key positions within Kirkuk's security forces, and the Jan. 30 elections put Kurds in control of the provincial government. They have also emerged as the U.S. military's main ally in the fight against Sunni Arab insurgents in the region, providing intelligence, support and manpower.
