Kurds Blamed For Cutting Water To Iraq

Iraq accused a Kurdish group Monday of cutting water supplies to the rest of the country and claimed the move was made in concert with the United States.

Mahmoud Dhyab al-Ahmed, Iraq’s minister of irrigation, said the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan had cut water flowing from two major northern dams, leading to widespread crop damage.

“The water supplies have been reduced by the stooges of the foreigners, causing great harm to the Iraqi people,” al-Ahmed told the state-run Iraqi News Agency. “This completes the siege imposed by the Americans.”

He was referring to U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed on Iraq in 1990 after it invaded Kuwait. The invasion led to the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The U.N. says it will not consider lifting sanctions until Iraq fully complies with U.N. monitors overseeing the dismantling of its weapons programs.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party have controlled northern Iraq since shortly after the war, with military help from the United States, Britain and France. Their autonomy has angered Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Al-Ahmed said water was cut from the Dardbandi Khan and Dokan dams, built to create reservoirs on the Tigris River for the dry season that begins in June. He warned the Kurdish group of unspecified retaliation if the water supplies were not increased immediately.

Fouad Massoum, a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan spokesman, denied deliberately cutting off water supplies and blamed the shortage on low rainfall.