RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And now, to northern Iraq. In the city of Mosul, preparations for tomorrow's election have taken a violent turn. Mosul is a mixed city, with an Arab majority and a substantial Kurdish minority. But it's the Kurds who've controlled the provincial council for the past three years. Mosul's Arabs are vowing to change that this time around. NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro spent some time with U.S. forces in Mosul, and has this report.
Mr. ABDUL KHALIQ NAYEF SULTAN: (Arabic spoken).
Lieutenant TODD KIRWAN (1st Battalion, 8th Infantry, U.S. Army; Operation Iraqi Freedom): Just stopping around today to kind of check the security, and also get some information about the polling sites in your area.
LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO: Lieutenant Todd Kirwan, with the 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry, is searching all the houses on this street. They're near what will become, this weekend, two voting centers. On this day, the Americans are working with Iraqi army soldiers, all of whom are Kurdish. This is an Arab neighborhood. The house owner, Abdul Khaliq Nayef Sultan, tells Lieutenant Kirwan that the area is safe, and that there are no problems. But as the U.S. and Iraqi soldiers are leaving, Nayef whispers to a visiting reporter that he doesn't like the presence of the Kurdish soldiers in his home.
Mr. NAYEF: (Through translator) It's really difficult to have them here, but we are helpless. We really feel invaded. I expect 100 percent that come Election Day, they will try and prevent us Arabs from voting.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Suspicions are rife, and tensions are high, on both sides here ahead of the elections. Because of the Arab boycott in 2005, the Nineveh provincial council is controlled by Kurdish parties, despite the fact that Mosul is predominantly Arab. The Arabs in Mosul accuse the Kurds of targeting the Arab population through assassinations and intimidation. At least two Arab candidates have been killed in the run-up to the vote, and the main Arab party in Mosul, known as al-Hadba, says its offices have been raided repeatedly at the behest of Kurdish officials. The Kurds, for their part, cite the long history of repression of Mosul's Kurds during the reign of Saddam Hussein. And Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman says that more recently, Arab-Islamist extremists have terrorized Mosul's Kurdish population.
Dr. MAHMOUD OTHMAN (Member, Iraqi National Assembly): From 2003 'til now, we have had 2,500 Kurds killed in Mosul. That's a lot of casualties. So, Kurds have suffered more than others.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: The struggle for control of Mosul has involved the highest levels of the Iraqi government. Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has repeatedly tried to purge the two Iraqi army divisions in the region of Kurdish officers, to the outrage of senior Kurdish officials in his own government. Sami al-Askari, a confidant of the prime minister, says that Maliki is trying to stop Kurdish expansion in the North.
Mr. SAMI AL-ASKARI (Member, Iraqi National Assembly): (Through translator) Wherever there's a Kurdish population, they want the land to be part of Kurdistan. They are working towards that in legal and illegal ways, through creating facts on the ground, through political pressure, and through illicit alliances.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Those fears have been taken out to the stump, principally by the al-Hadba party, which is expected to do well this weekend. Major Adam Boyd is the senior American intelligence officer in Mosul. He says that because the Arabs have been politically disenfranchised all these years here, the Arab majority has been, up until now, sympathetic to the insurgency.
Major ADAM BOYD (Intelligence Officer, 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, U.S. Army, Operation Iraqi Freedom): They run on a very anti-Kurd ticket but at the same time, they run on a security ticket. They can run - the Hadba can run on a ticket of, they couldn't provide security; we can. We get elected back in? A good deal of the insurgents go away.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: The Kurdish parties, which are running on a unified list, know they will lose their position of dominance. Last month, Kurdish members of the current council tried, but failed, to postpone voting in the province.
Maj. BOYD: Do you have any concerns with having polling sites right here in your neighborhood?
Unidentified Iraqi Man: (Arabic spoken).
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Back on patrol with American troops here, Kurdish Sergeant Ali Farouk says he is loyal to the Iraqi army and their mission of protecting all citizens. But he acknowledges that the Kurds have bigger ambitions.
Sergeant ALI FAROUK (Iraqi Army): (Through translator) We want an independent Kurdistan, of course, and we want Mosul to be a part of that Kurdish state.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: The Arabs here vow that will never happen. Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR News, Mosul.