BY TYLER ROGOWAY
Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed militias aligned with the government in Baghdad have begun a massive military operation to wrest control of Kirkuk governorate from the country’s Kurdish Regional Government following a controversial referendum on a future independent Kurdistan. The move has left the United States and its anti-ISIS coalition desperately scrambling to de-escalate the situation, calling it just a "misunderstanding," while at the same time still trying to avoid publicly taking a side in a conflict that could turn into an all out civil war or even a regional crisis.
Iraqi troops began the offensive overnight on Oct. 15, 2017, and claimed to have ejected the Kurdish Regional Government’s (KRG) own security forces, known as the Peshmerga, from major oil fields to the south of Kirkuk city, as well as the province’s main military base. Active fighting between the two parities, to include an exchange of artillery fire, reportedly resulted in dozens of casualties and the destruction of numerous military vehicles. The government in Baghdad also formally named Arab politician Rakan Saeed Al Jobouri to take over as governor of the province, the Iraqi parliament already having voted to remove the previous Kurdish official, Najmaldin Karim, ahead of the independence referendum in September 2017.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/15174/has-the-iraqi-civil-war-begun
