Kurdistan

The Iraqi Turkmen Front has that its members in Iraq's Kirkuk province will continue to protest by not attending provincial council sessions, as they did during the previous governorate elections.

Greece's anti-terrorism service detained 26 people and seized heavy weaponry including anti-tank arms in a large, ongoing counterterrorism operation in central Athens on Thursday to dismantle a suspected far-leftist militant group, police sources cited by state-run news agency ANA-MPA said.

Greece's anti-terrorism service raided a house and an office of a rights committee for Kurds in central Athens on Thursday, detaining 26 people on suspected of links to a far-leftist militant group outlawed in Turkey, police sources cited by state-run news agency ANA-MPA said.

Since Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet last week, the United States has quietly put on hold a long-standing request for its NATO ally to play a more active role in the U.S.-led air war against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). 

Kurdish forces launched an offensive on Nov. 12 to retake the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar from ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) militants who overran it more than a year ago, killing and enslaving thousands of its Yazidi residents and triggering U.S.-led air strikes.

Turkey can no longer carry the weight of the rising number of killings amid the spiral of violence taking its toll on all sides, Peoples? Democratic Party (HDP) Co-chair Selahattin Demirta? has said, urging both the president and the government to listen to calls for an imminent silencing of arms.

Gas flow on the Shah Deniz pipeline carrying natural gas from Azerbaijan was halted by an explosion in Turkey on Aug. 24 evening, energy sector officials said, with one saying it was thought Kurdish militants had sabotaged the pipeline.

Plans for Iraq's semi-autonomous region KRG to tap international markets have been all but wiped out by falling oil prices, rising geopolitical tensions and a difficult backdrop for emerging economies, according to fund managers.

Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region (KRG) has ramped up independent oil sales since mid-June while cutting allocations to Iraq's state oil firm SOMO in an escalating dispute over export rights and budget payments.