Sunday, October 15, 2017

Iraq: Iraqi Troops backed by Iranian Shia Milita march against Kurds in Kirkuk

(Kirkuk) In a story line resembling something out of the TV show ‘Game of Thrones’.  Iraq has sent in the army to retake the city of Kirkuk from the Kurds.  Both sides having fought for years against Islamic state, have now decided to face off against each other.


To be honest, the Kurds have over stretched themselves and don’t have the luxury of the Zagros Mountain range which has protected them for years.  Add the fact that with provincial and national parliamentary elections to be held early next year, anybody who is seen to be going soft on a land grab by the Kurds  especially after years of fighting against ISIS won’t be winning many prizes.  Plus with neither Turkey, Syria or even Iran supporting the case for a breakaway Kurdish state, the best thing the Kurds should do is back off and keep the death toll to a bare minimum. That said , mass Kurdish deaths at the hands of the Iraqi army would give the Kurds the very excuse they require in which to cede from Baghdad. And you thought the plot in GOT was complicated.