Oil-rich Kirkuk a thorny issue for Kurds

A vote on whether the city should be absorbed into Kurdistan is likely delayed, leaving Kurds to wonder if Kirkuk is worth risking civil war

IRBIL, Iraq - The Kurdish flag, not the Iraqi one, flutters over government buildings here in Kurdistan because the Iraqi flag was banned last year. Yet when the Iraqi soccer team won the Asian Cup last month, the Kurds took to the streets to celebrate with their fellow Iraqis -- some even waving the forbidden flag.

Kurds tout their region as "the other Iraq," the one part of the country where foreigners are both welcome and safe. With their autonomous status enshrined in Iraq's constitution, they function virtually as an independent nation, with their own laws, their own government and their own parliament.

While much of the rest of the country is mired in sectarian violence, the Kurds have achieved almost everything they could have dreamed of -- except for one key prize, the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which some have called Kurdistan's Jerusalem. full text