Iraqi forces are now in control of the last district in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk. after Kurdish Peshmerga fighters took over after a three-hour battle, according to security sources.
Larger geopolitical questions are now in play. Syria, Turkey, and Iraq do not want to see their Kurdish regions merge into a united Kurdistan.
Christine van den Toorn, director of the Institute for Regional and International Studies at the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani based in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, gives us an update on the humanitarian situation and also analysis on the question of the Kirkuk victory signaling the beginning of a Kurdish state.