There are two garages in Kirkuk where you travel from, either by bus or taxi. One is for travels to Slemani and the other for travel to Hewler, the later is in Rahimawa quarter. I melt in among the citizens pretty good as long as I do not talk. So I went to the Slemani garage to take a cab.
You have to be careful and be ware for the signs, risk for abductions are very high. What the signs are you will learn with time and hopefully not too late. I sat down in the backseat of a cab to Slemani. The guy beside me had a Kalashnikov on the floor. I also saw that he was wearing “klash” which is Kurdish folklore shoes. I was feeling pretty safe then because he were probably Peshmerga in civil clothes, along with his colleagues. They went off at a Peshmerga headquarter when we were close to Slemani.
Last time I traveled from Kirkuk I traveled from Rahimawa station. There were no cabs so we had to wait for a half hour but at last we got one. One week ago on the 17:th February the Rahimawa travel station were blown up by terrorists. Approximated 12 persons were killed in the blast and 86 persons were injured. We passed by the Rahimawa travel center and it was not much left of it. It was a Kurdish area that in many peoples mind was the last place for a terrorist bomb.
Rahimawa travel station a week after the explosion. On the corner there was a building that is now totally gone. This was the crowdy central and there were cars and busses all around the street. It is now desert empty lik many other parts of the city.In Slemani I met up with some colleagues for some late evening work. I traveled back to Kirkuk the day after early in the morning and the colleagues were going to another place.
This is the monument in honour of "Mama Risha". He was a legendary Peshmerga originating from Kirkuk.This blog should have been posted yesterday but was delayed because of terrible internet in this area.
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