From the old Iraqi TV building in Kirkuk, the new US-approved station, Kirkuk TV, was broadcasting local news and messages from the Americans and local community leaders in Kurdish, Arabic and Turkmen languages.
The team that replaced the old pro-Saddam staff packed up their equipment on Saturday and quit.
They said they could no longer tolerate the constant harassment from the American troops, who frequently charged into the building in search of weapons.
Cameraman Saman Jalal and a crew were apprehended by American troops patrolling the streets of the city after a long day of filming street clashes last week.
"They handcuffed us, put bags on our heads and were swearing at us and intimidating us all the time," said Saman.
'Heavy handed'
"We yelled that we were journalists. We even showed them our press cards."
They say the US troops ignored their protests and released them hours later.
Kirkuk TV's experiences are not unusual.
The US army's heavy-handed approach and their lack of understanding of the area have caused numerous similar incidents and have contributed to rising tensions in the city.
"The Americans seem to be completely lost," says Hasan Muhamad, a colonel in the new Kirkuk police force.
"They are all military, they don't understand the politics of the place."
Following the fall of Kirkuk, the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, who were the only organized armed group, took charge of the security of the city.
But after immense pressure from neighbouring Turkey, the Kurds were forced to leave Kirkuk and hand over the city to US troops.
Turkey fears that Kurdish control over the city would strengthen the Kurds in Iraq and would set an example for its own Kurdish population, who are deprived of many cultural and political rights.
"We are concerned about Turkey's role," says Major Robert Gowen of the US 173d Airborne.
Turkish interests in the region have long been represented by the Turkmen Front.
Mayor Gowen says the group appears to be recruiting new members, spreading propaganda and stirring up trouble.
The withdrawal of the Peshmerga forces from the city compelled the Americans to create a police force of 800 members equally divided between the four main ethnic groups in the city; Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen and Assyrian Christians.
Stacks of documents
Apart from the 200 Kurds, the majority of the other 600 were members of the old Iraqi police force in the city.
This caused fury amongst the people of Kirkuk, especially the Kurds, who were intimidated and harassed by the old regime.
"How do you expect people to go to their former oppressors with their problems?" asks Nizamaddin Gili, a Kurdish representative in Kirkuk.
But Burhan Ubaydi, an Arab tribal leader, says that the old police officers were implementing orders and that members of the Baath party were not only in the police, but in all government departments.
"You can't get rid of them all."
Others, however, believe that at least those who have known track records of abuse should be fired.
Colonel Muhamad has stacks of documents seized from Iraqi security showing that some of his new colleagues were implicated in the old regime's crimes.
"The Americans seem to be completely lost. They are all military, they don't understand the politics of the place""They [the Americans] are mixing their allies and their enemies," he said.
While in power, the Baath Party regime conducted a campaign of Arabizing the city of Kirkuk.
Kurdish inhabitants were expelled from the city and their land and property were given to Arabs brought in from the south of Iraq.
Ethnic cleansing
About 200,000 Kurds are now trying to return to their homes, shops and farms.
But the US Army is preventing them from doing so and is saying that these disputes should be adjudicated by a court of law, although none exist in Iraq today.
The Kurds say they are frustrated with the American approach.
"The US cannot become the guardian of the evil of ethnic cleansing," says Barham Saleh, Kurdish Prime Minister in Sulaymaniyah.
"Liberation means that ethnic cleansing should be reversed."
The Arab tribal leader, Burhan Ubaydi, considers the plight of the newly-brought-in Arabs a humanitarian one.
"Some of them have been here for over 20 years. They have nowhere to go," he said.
This unsettled issue is causing tension between the Kurds and the Arabs in the city.
The Kurds say that the current proportion of Kurds to other ethnic groups will leave them under-represented in the controversial elections for the city council and mayor.
A city council of 30 members, six from each ethnic group and six American-selected "independents", will vote for mayor of the city.
Like the police force, the city council is also divided among the four ethnic groups equally, regardless of the actual percentage of each group within the population.
Many see this American 25% formula as a recipe for ethnic strife in the city because some groups will be under-represented while others will be over-represented.
But the Americans are quite satisfied with it.
"It insures that each group gets some voice," Mayor Gowen says.
In many ways, Kirkuk represents a microcosm of the new Iraq.
The challenge for the US is to address the legacies of Saddam Hussein's regime, eliminate outside intervention, and ensure fair representation for all the ethnic groups.
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