Free Republic

Tension between Baghdad and Kurdistan region has reached its peak since the Iraqi PM, Nuri AL-Maliki ordered the removal of Kurdish flags from government buildings in Khanaqin in Diyala province, which is in the disputed territories defined under Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution. Since the directive was issues by the Iraqi PM, many protests in Diyala province and elsewhere in Kurdistan region have taken place... The head of Diyala province also refused to comply with the order from the PM to remove the Kurdish flag from government buildings. The focal point of the incident was in Khanaqin, in an...

SAADIYAH, Iraq — Iraqi police officers found explosives planted at a polling station Sunday morning here, the latest incident in a tense run-up to provincial elections in northeast Diyala province. The officers found two anti-tank mines with cell phone detonators at a school that will act as a polling station in Saadiyah, north of Baghdad in a part of Iraq disputed between Kurds and Arabs, U.S. military officials said. An Iraqi army explosives ordnance team defused and disposed of the explosives, officials said. Two men hired to guard the school were arrested for suspected complicity in the bombing plot, an...

BAQUBAH, IRAQ-U.S. military officials here have little trouble knowing when al Qaeda is exerting its influence in this city that was, once upon a time, the lush, orange-growing capital of the Mideast. Sometimes it's the subtle signs: Tomatoes and cucumbers start disappearing from the market, deemed too sexually suggestive, soldiers here say, by the Sunni fundamentalist terrorists. On other occasions, it's more overt: "Graffiti that says, 'Long live al Qaeda,' and stupid stuff like that," explains a U.S. military officer based here in what is now the capital of Diyala province. Mostly, though, the pressure has been bold and deadly:...