Iraqi Kurds

ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency played a role in Iraqi Kurdistan’s independence vote, proved by the waving of Israeli flags during celebrations of the overwhelming “yes’ vote.

The autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq will likely become an independent state after the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) is defeated in the country, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) told lawmakers.

Kurdish and Arab forces – including U.S.-backed Iraqi troops, Shiite militias linked to Iran, Peshmerga troops, and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – have launched offensives targeting three major Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) strongholds in Iraq and Syria.

Turkish warplanes have renewed airstrikes against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions in northern Iraq, Reuters has learned from military sources.

The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) repelled an offensive launched by Shiite militiamen, many of them backed by Iran, to recapture the village of Bashir south of northern Iraq’s Kirkuk, Kurdish media outlet Rudaw reports.

President Masoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq echoed Turkey’s position and said the terrorist group known as the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) and the U.S.-backed Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria “are exactly one and the same thing.”

A delegation from the international coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), led by an Obama administration envoy, reportedly told Kurds in northern Syria that they have a “right” to an autonomous region during a recent visit to the country.

France is to construct a massive new migrant camp on its northern coast, presenting the UK with major new threat to its border security. The camp, which will be France’s first official migrant camp for 13 years, will join the

According to the Kurdish Rudaw news agency, Turkish airstrikes against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets destroyed a health clinic in the Amediye district of Duhok. The clinic is said to have serviced several nearby villages. No casualties were reported.

The President of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government, Masoud Barzani, has appeared to take the side of the Turkish government regarding recently launched airstrikes against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), calling the U.S.-designated terrorist group “arrogant” and praising Turkey for taking a “positive” role in attempting peace talks with the PKK.