In Iraq, Kurdish militia has the run of oil-rich Kirkuk - Kurds were Irans ally during Iran/Iraq war

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/16716510.htm

KIRKUK, Iraq - Lt. Hiwa Raouf Abdul is not supposed to be in Kirkuk. The oil-rich city, which many fear is teetering on the brink of civil war, is off-limits to Kurdish Peshmerga militia members.

And yet, on Tuesday, the slender, 26-year-old Peshmerga officer breezed through one checkpoint after the next on his way into Kirkuk, exchanging waves and salutes with Iraqi army soldiers and policemen as he rode with a truckload of Peshmerga gunmen.

Abdul is stationed in the nearby Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, where the Peshmerga enforce strict security through a series of checkpoints, and his visit to Kirkuk came only because his commanders asked him to escort a reporter there.

But the ease with which a pickup truck carrying seven Peshmerga members, most of them wielding AK-47s, passed into Kirkuk says volumes about the challenge of pacifying flashpoint towns like Kirkuk and, ultimately, Iraq.

When he passed by the Iraqi army checkpoint on the edge of Kirkuk, Abdul looked at the soldiers saluting him and said, "They get their orders from the Iraqi army, but their loyalty is to the Kurds, to us." snip

Requests for comment from four senior U.S. military public affairs officers in Baghdad were unsuccessful.

[acmavm]

1. They're feeling pretty powerful right now. But how long is Turkey going to

allow them to gain strength and supporters? What will the Kurds do when the Turks have had enough?