U.S. soldiers arrive at the scene of clashes between Iraqi Turkmen, Kurdish peshmergas

KIRKUK, Iraq, August 24 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Another Three Turkmen were shot dead by police in this northern Iraqi oil-rich city on Saturday, August 23, in the second consecutive bloody clashes between Turkmen and Kurdish peshmerga that left on Friday, August 22, eight dead on both sides.

The three Turkmen were gunned down after they opened fire on a police building during a demonstration, said Kirkuk Governor Abdul Rahman Mustafa.

"Elements seeking to destabilize Kirkuk... exploited the peaceful demonstration and opened fire on the police building without any justification, prompting the police to return fire," Mustafa told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"This led to the killing of three of the demonstrators," he said, adding that three policemen, including an officer, were also wounded.

Irsan Kirkuly, a Turkmen member of the city's local council, earlier told AFP that three Turkmen were arrested during the protest and three cars, including a police vehicle, were destroyed.

The fighting began on Friday night, August 22, in the nearby town of Tuz Kharmato, 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of Kirkuk, reportedly over the reopening there of a Turkmen religious shrine, the BBC News Online said.

But Kahya Galib, a member of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, told AFP that the fighting in Tuz Khurmatu broke out after unidentified elements fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a Shiite religious site revered by Shiite Turkmen residents.

Ten Turkmen and three Kurds were injured in Friday clashes, said Tuz Khurmatu's Kurdish mayor Mohammad Rashid Mohammad.

U.S. soldiers also killed two Turkmen during a demonstration in Tuz Khurmatu Friday, a U.S. military spokesman said.

Tuz Khurmatu was sealed off by U.S. troops Saturday, said an AFP reporter on the site.

Colonel Bill Mayville, commander of U.S.-led occupation forces in Kirkuk, met with representatives of all communities in the multi-ethnic city -- which is home to Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen and Assyrian Christians -- in an effort to restore calm.

"The situation is now secure in the town," Mustafa said, after most residents had rushed to their homes and shop-owners shut their stores.

About 200 Kurds protested outside the Kirkuk government building last Sunday demanding that they be incorporated within the province.

Tensions have risen in Tuz Khurmatu as the Kurds have demanded that the town be transferred to the Kurdish-majority governorate of Kirkuk from the Arab-majority province of Salahuddin, in which it currently lies.

A Turkmen representative in the Kurdish city of Arbil, Jawdat al-Najar, said the clashes in Tuz Khurmatu were provoked by "those who don't want stability in Iraq."