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Tuz Khurmatu

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Country
  
Iraq

Elevation
  
715 ft (218 m)

Local time
  
Monday 7:03 AM

District
  
Tooz

Population
  
119,000 (2012)

Province
  
Saladin Governorate

Tuz Khurmatu

Weather
  
9°C, Wind SE at 8 km/h, 77% Humidity

Tuz Khurmatu (Arabic: طوزخورماتو‎‎, Turkish: Tuzhurmatu also spelled as Tuz Khurma and Tuz Khormato or just Khurmatu) is the central city of Tooz District in Saladin Province, Iraq, located 55 miles south of Kirkuk. The town is multi-ethnic, with a majority of Shia Turkmen and minorities of Sunni Turkmen, Arabs, and Kurds.

Contents

Map of Tuz Khurma, Iraq

Tuz Khormato, along with Altun Kupri, Amerli, Bashir, Bustamli, Mahalabiyah, Qarah Tappah, Sulaiman Bek, Tal Afar, Taza Khurmatu, and Yankjah, make up the largest Turkmen-majority cities in Iraq, while Mosul, Kirkuk, Kifri, Daquq, Muqdadiyah, Jalawla, and Saadiyah have significant Turkmen minority populations.

Etymology

The name of the city is taken from Turkish and Persian, meaning salt (Turkish: tuz) date (Persian: khurma) and tu (Turkish: dağ), which means Mountain with salty dates.

History

The town participated in the 1991 Iraqi uprising before being suppressed by the Ba'athist Iraqi army.

Since the Invasion of Iraq, the city has experienced significant violence. It is contested between the Kurdistan Regional Government, the Baghdad government, and the Popular Mobilization Units, and has been frequently bombed by Al-Qaeda in Iraq and its successor the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Operation Iraqi Freedom

  • On June 2, 2005, at least 12 people were killed and at least 40 wounded in an explosion targeting a restaurant.
  • On June 23, 2005, a car bomb detonated by remote control hit an Iraqi police patrol, killing one policeman and wounding 7 civilians.
  • On September 20, 2005, insurgents detonated a car bomb targeting Shiite worshippers as they were exiting the Hussainiyat al-Rasoul al-Azam mosque, killing at least 10 and wounding 21 others.
  • On March 14, 2007, a suicide bomber struck a market and killing 8 and wounding 25.

    • Operation New Dawn

  • On September 7, 2010, the first US casualties after President Barack Obama declared an end to US combat operations took place near the city when an Iraqi soldier killed 2 US military personnel.

    • Post-U.S. withdrawal and Iraqi civil war

  • On October 27, 2012, a car bombing next to a building owned by a Shi'ite endowment killed two civilians and injured ten others.
  • On December 17, 2012, two consecutive car bombings hit a residential area near the city's General Hospital, killing 11 civilians and injuring 45 others. The attacks were part of a country-wide wave of violence that killed almost 100 people in a single day.
  • On January 16, 2013, a suicide car bombing at the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party killed 5 and injured 40 others.
  • On January 23, 2013, a suicide bomber blew himself up during a funeral for a politician's relative in the city, killing 42 and leaving 75 others wounded.
  • In November 2015, the town experienced clashes between the Kurdish Peshmerga and Shia Popular Mobilization Forces that claimed 11 lives, wounded over 20 people, and damaged over 200 houses through arson committed by both sides. A truce was reached soon after.
  • On November 28, 2015, a suicide bomber bombed a town checkpoint, killing 6.

    • Notable residents

    Ali Kanbar Ozdamer (1919–1999) was a well-known artist from the area.

    References

    Tuz Khurmatu Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA