Tens of protestors of Arab and Turkmen gathered in Kirkuk, 250 km north of Baghdad, on Wednesday, demanding the Iraqi officials to cancel the decision of taking out Arab population from the city.

"We gathered today to protest against the decision of the Committee of Normalization of Situations which is to return Arab in our city to their original areas," Ahmed Ibrahim, a male protestor, told Xinhua, clarifying that Arab and all other nationalities live brotherly in the city.

The committee has decided in a meeting last Sunday to take out the Arab immigrants from Kirkuk City, granting them a dwelling land and 20 million Iraqi dinars.

Moreover, the Iraqi Parliament has formed recently the Committee of Normalization of Situations presided by Hameed Majeed Musa, the member in the Parliament.

However, Kirkuk that witnesses a confused security situation due to the abundance of explosions and armed attacks is a mixed city populated by Turkmen, Kurds, Arabs, and other minorities.

(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2007)