Hundreds of Kurdish families are fleeing a town in northern Iraq for the nearby city of Kirkuk after the murder of several Kurds fuelled fears of ethnic cleansing, local officials said today.
Seven Kurds have been gunned down in the mainly Arab town of Hawija in 10 days, most of them on crowded streets in broad daylight in what Kurds say is a campaign to force them out.
Mr Rezkar Ali, a Kirkuk city council member for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, said 543 Kurdish families, perhaps some 3,000 people, had arrived in recent days in the city. Kirkuk is coveted by Kurds, Arabs and Turkish-speaking Turkmen, not least because it sits on nearly half of Iraq's oil reserves.
Most of those who have fled are staying with relatives in Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad.
Mr Kak Salar Sabah, a Kurdish resident of Hawija, said he left with his family of seven for Kirkuk, where he is staying with a cousin at his small house in one of the poorest neighbourhoods.
"I ran away from there with my children because I know that the murderers don't distinguish between young and old, political and non-political," Mr Sabah said.
"We have been living in Hawija for over 60 years in peace and those who were killed had also been living there for decades but fell victim to political dealings."
Since the US-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein last year, Kurdish, Turkmen and Arab groups have clashed several times as they wrestle for dominance in the Kirkuk region.
But tensions are running particularly high as the January 30 election approaches, and politicians have called for the poll there to be postponed because of fears of violence.
Kurdish leaders and parties have blamed the attacks on the US-trained Iraqi police and National Guard, as well as Hawija council members, who they say are backing the perpetrators.
They have called on the Iraqi interim government and US forces to intervene to prevent an escalation into all-out ethnic conflict that the area is all too familiar with.