Hemin Hawrami

Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region on June 8 announced it would hold a referendum on independence, in a move the central government in Baghdad is likely to oppose strongly.

"I am pleased to announce that the date for the independence referendum has been set for Monday, Sept. 25, 2017," Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said on Twitter.

Kurdish peshmerga forces need a short-term emergency fund of $300 million a month from the U.S. to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a Kurdish Iraqi official said on Feb. 8.      

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) carried out an attack against a Sunni military camp in the Bashiqa region of northern Iraq, wounding four Turkish soldiers. 

Two Peshmerga soldiers were also reportedly killed. 

It would be great fun and entertainment to write and speak about Turkish showbiz stars? highly documented, high-drama divorce cases these days. All of a sudden, women with six-digit incomes have become ?women-against-domestic-violence? crusaders. But let?s pencil them in for another week. The divorce we are talking about is in Iraq. And it could easily get messy.

It was June when Kurds came closest to gaining their dream of independence. Northern Iraqi Kurds captured the oil-rich Kirkuk following the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) assault on Mosul on June 10. Following this, the President of Iraqi Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, declared they would hold an independence referendum soon.

Iraq is essentially divided already, a senior Kurdish official has said, noting that if the people of Iraqi Kurdistan give their leaders a mandate for an independent state, it will be a country for all citizens living in Kurdistan, regardless of their ethnic origin.