Free Republic

The leader of Iraq's Kurdish region warned Tuesday of a "real civil war" if the central government does not implement a constitutional clause on the future of Kirkuk, the oil-rich city claimed by the Kurds. Control over Kirkuk and the surrounding oil wealth is in dispute among the city's Kurdish, Arab and ethnic Turkish populations. Nationally, the dispute pits the Kurds, who want to annex it to their autonomous region in northern Iraq, against the country's Arab majority and its small minority of Turks, known locally as Turkomen.

IRBIL, June 9 (KUNA) -- American-led forces continued a military operation in Telaafar (Tal Afar), 70 KM west of Mosul in northern Iraq, arresting around 70 suspects, said Thursday Abdulghani Ali, who is in charge of media affairs at the 14th branch of the Kurdistan Democratic Party led by Massoud Barzani in Mosul. Conditions in Telaafar, however, had calmed down during the day, excluding few shooting incidents, he said.