The Turks and Iraqi Arabs are already compiling evidence of aggressive Kurdish action in Kirkuk, such as Kurdish party officials paying Arab families to leave ahead of decisions by the Property Claims Commission and the resettling of supporters of Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Kirkuk in advance of the referendum.

If Kurdish officials are demonstrating their defiance now in pursuing the oil exploration contracts despite Iraqi and regional opposition, Turkey, Iran and their Iraqi brothers will not be inclined to give the Kurdish leadership the benefit of the doubt when they claim they harbor no intentions to secede by c...

The Turks and Iraqi Arabs are already compiling evidence of aggressive Kurdish action in Kirkuk, such as Kurdish party officials paying Arab families to leave ahead of decisions by the Property Claims Commission and the resettling of supporters of Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Kirkuk in advance of the referendum.

If Kurdish officials are demonstrating their defiance now in pursuing the oil exploration contracts despite Iraqi and regional opposition, Turkey, Iran and their Iraqi brothers will not be inclined to give the Kurdish leadership the benefit of the doubt when they claim they harbor no intentions to secede by claiming Kirkuk. But Turkey and other regional powers are not the only security threats to the KRG. Iraqi insurgents have also set their sights on Kirkuk.

In the latest attack, a suicide bomber targeted a top Kirkuki security official, killing five and wounding 20. As al-Qaeda and their supporters have been flushed out of Iraq's al-Anbar province and many parts of Baghdad, they are traveling out, upwards and along the borders. Their presence is being increasingly felt at points north. The November 15 suicide attack in Kirkuk was just one of dozens, if not hundreds, of attacks on Kirkuk this year.

The new exploration fields are a promising target to incoming insurgents and an increasingly violent indigenous Kurdish opposition to the PUK-KDP power monopoly in the KRG. A recent explosion at one exploration field, though it was deemed an engineering failure, was immediately thought to be the work of saboteurs.