Sinjar mayor says embarked on deploying combined forces in district

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: Efforts are underway to prevent any security breaches as armed groups are active in the province of Ninewa, according to the Sinjar mayor on Thursday. “Initial steps were taken to implement U.S. proposals to deploy combined forces in the district as composed of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, the Iraqi government and the U.S. forces in disputed areas, including Sinjar, (110 km) northwest of Mosul,” Dakheel Qassem Hassoun told Iraqi News. “Security agencies in the district are adopting stringent security measures by intensifying checkpoints and efforts to detect terrorists to preclude the occurrence of attacks in the area that is facing immense threats due to its nearness to the borders with Syria and the spread of a number of armed groups in western Ninewa,” he said. “U.S. forces arrived in areas in Sinjar to deploy alongside the Iraqi government and the Kurdish peshmerga forces to protect them,” Hassoun noted. A truck rigged with explosives and driven by a suicide bomber went off on Wednesday night in the eastern Ninewa village of Wardak, inhabited by Iraq’s ethnic Kakais, leaving 20 people killed and 30 others wounded. The district of Sannouni, northern Sinjar, of a predominantly religious Yazidi inhabitant, had witnessed a car bombing attack on August 29, 2009, leaving six killed and 23 others wounded. On August 13, a double suicide bombing attack rocked a café in central Sinjar, killing 23 and wounding 30 others. The volatile province of Ninewa, 405 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, has been registered as the most violent province in the country during the past couple of months as areas inhabited by minorities were the target of several attacks that left more than 156 people killed. Kakais, known as the Ahl-i Haqq (People of the Truth), live scattered over Iraqi Kurdistan, and in various regions in Iran, especially the Guran district and Azerbayjan. Estirnates as to their numbers vary from several tens of thousands to over two million; the majority live in Iran. In Iraq, they are usually referred to as Kakais, whereas in Iran they are called Yaresan. AmR (S) 1