The Iraqi Kurds

Two quick links.

Azzaman Online:

Iraqi Kurds would like to add more territory to their current borders, according to a draft constitution before the Kurdish parliament.

The proposed constitution will grab more land that will see the current Kurdish borders expanded close to Baghdad.

The new map includes several districts which are currently within the provincial borders of Nineveh, of which the northern city of Mosul is the capital.

If added, the current borders will stretch from close to Baghdad on the Iranian borders to Iraq’s international frontier with Syria.

The Los Angeles Times:

BAGHDAD — Kurdish militiamen seized a police station in northern Iraq on Monday to prevent its transfer to a new Sunni Arab commander, igniting a daylong standoff that echoed the parliament's continuing unease over territory-sharing in the final administrative map of Iraq.

The clash in the town of Jalawla underscored the potential for violence as parliament prepared to study the contentious issue of creating autonomous regions in this multiethnic and heavily armed nation.

Though most of the biggest political disputes are likely to center on the oilfields in the south, in largely Shiite Muslim areas, and the northern city of Kirkuk, another oil-rich area claimed by the Kurds, the clash in Jalawla marked an early warning of what many fear could be a turbulent battle for the frontiers of a future Kurdish zone.