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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Unknown gunmen opened fire on the headquarters of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Sulaimani in the early hours of Friday morning after a high-ranking official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) was barred from entering Erbil. No casualties were reported.
“Shots from an automobile were fired at the headquarters of the fourth branch of the KDP at 1:30 am on Friday. The shooting inflicted no casualties,” Atta Sheikh Hasan, the spokesperson of KDP leadership council in Sulaimani, confirmed to Rudaw.
“Our guards responded to the shooting.”
The identity of the attackers has not yet been established, although it comes amid fresh tensions between supporters of the KDP and PUK. Hasan said Sulaimani’s security establishment must provide answers.
“The security forces of Sulaimani have a responsibility to protect the security of our headquarters and should respond to what happened,” he said.
Threatening the KDP’s offices in Sulaimani harms the will of the “twelve percent of the people of Sulaimani whose votes we have won”, he added.
The shooting may be connected to an incident on Thursday when KDP security forces prevented a prominent PUK politburo official and military commander Mahmoud Sangawi from entering the Kurdistan Region capital Erbil, where a PUK politburo meeting was due to be held.
The PUK immediately responded to the checkpoint incident in the Smaquli Valley, calling it “illegal” and “unacceptable”.
The Ministry of Interior of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which has ultimate authority over the Region’s checkpoints, subsequently issued a statement insisting it had no hand in the decision to block Sangawi, and described the incident as “unfortunate”.
The KRG has promised to conduct a thorough investigation to “relieve the concerns of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan’s politburo and prevent the reoccurrence of such events”.
Eyewitnesses told Rudaw the checkpoint had been reinforced with additional forces.
The KDP, PUK, nor the Ministry of Interior have provided answers as to why Sangawi was prevented from entering Erbil. However, it is possible the incident is connected to a political spat involving the KDP’s leader Masoud Barzani.
Speaking at a PUK event in mid-June this year, while the two parties were locked in government formation talks and a dispute over who should govern Kirkuk, Sangawi referred to Barzani as a “small man” and accused him of appointing Baathist collaborators to top military posts.
Sangawi’s comments against Barzani did not go down well with KDP supporters, and Barzani’s media office did not mince its words when it fired back on June 18.
“Mahmoud Sangawi’s words, which were the lowest and cheapest, aren’t worthy of a reply because the history and acts of this individual, who is a mafia, pillager, and killer is known and is not to be responded to,” Barzani Headquarters said.
Barzani then slammed the PUK for not rebuking its own politburo members.
The two parties engaged in similar tit-for-tat in January when the KDP arrested six PUK members in Erbil in response to the PUK’s arrest of a prominent KDP member in its own areas.
Relations between the two biggest Kurdish parties have long been strained ever since they fought a brief civil war in the 1990s, but had seen notable improvement in recent years. The old rivalries often surface nevertheless.
The incident at the Smaquli Valley checkpoint actually coincided with the 21st anniversary of the Washington Agreement between the KDP and PUK which ended the civil war. The accord was brokered by the US in 1998.
Control of checkpoints is a favorite means of pressuring political rivals in the Kurdistan Region. The most notorious case was in 2015 when the KDP prevented members of the Change Movement (Gorran) opposition from entering Erbil to attend an important session of parliament.
Then-parliamentary speaker Yousif Mohammed and several Gorran ministers were turned away, provoking a bitter political crisis.
“Shots from an automobile were fired at the headquarters of the fourth branch of the KDP at 1:30 am on Friday. The shooting inflicted no casualties,” Atta Sheikh Hasan, the spokesperson of KDP leadership council in Sulaimani, confirmed to Rudaw.
“Our guards responded to the shooting.”
The identity of the attackers has not yet been established, although it comes amid fresh tensions between supporters of the KDP and PUK. Hasan said Sulaimani’s security establishment must provide answers.
“The security forces of Sulaimani have a responsibility to protect the security of our headquarters and should respond to what happened,” he said.
Threatening the KDP’s offices in Sulaimani harms the will of the “twelve percent of the people of Sulaimani whose votes we have won”, he added.
The shooting may be connected to an incident on Thursday when KDP security forces prevented a prominent PUK politburo official and military commander Mahmoud Sangawi from entering the Kurdistan Region capital Erbil, where a PUK politburo meeting was due to be held.
The PUK immediately responded to the checkpoint incident in the Smaquli Valley, calling it “illegal” and “unacceptable”.
The Ministry of Interior of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which has ultimate authority over the Region’s checkpoints, subsequently issued a statement insisting it had no hand in the decision to block Sangawi, and described the incident as “unfortunate”.
The KRG has promised to conduct a thorough investigation to “relieve the concerns of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan’s politburo and prevent the reoccurrence of such events”.
Eyewitnesses told Rudaw the checkpoint had been reinforced with additional forces.
The KDP, PUK, nor the Ministry of Interior have provided answers as to why Sangawi was prevented from entering Erbil. However, it is possible the incident is connected to a political spat involving the KDP’s leader Masoud Barzani.
Speaking at a PUK event in mid-June this year, while the two parties were locked in government formation talks and a dispute over who should govern Kirkuk, Sangawi referred to Barzani as a “small man” and accused him of appointing Baathist collaborators to top military posts.
Sangawi’s comments against Barzani did not go down well with KDP supporters, and Barzani’s media office did not mince its words when it fired back on June 18.
“Mahmoud Sangawi’s words, which were the lowest and cheapest, aren’t worthy of a reply because the history and acts of this individual, who is a mafia, pillager, and killer is known and is not to be responded to,” Barzani Headquarters said.
Barzani then slammed the PUK for not rebuking its own politburo members.
The two parties engaged in similar tit-for-tat in January when the KDP arrested six PUK members in Erbil in response to the PUK’s arrest of a prominent KDP member in its own areas.
Relations between the two biggest Kurdish parties have long been strained ever since they fought a brief civil war in the 1990s, but had seen notable improvement in recent years. The old rivalries often surface nevertheless.
The incident at the Smaquli Valley checkpoint actually coincided with the 21st anniversary of the Washington Agreement between the KDP and PUK which ended the civil war. The accord was brokered by the US in 1998.
Control of checkpoints is a favorite means of pressuring political rivals in the Kurdistan Region. The most notorious case was in 2015 when the KDP prevented members of the Change Movement (Gorran) opposition from entering Erbil to attend an important session of parliament.
Then-parliamentary speaker Yousif Mohammed and several Gorran ministers were turned away, provoking a bitter political crisis.
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