Kirkuk

“We were part of the unit protecting gas and oil depots outside of Kirkuk,” Rashid says.

At the time, the Kurdish Peshmerga did take up positions in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, where they remain to this day.

Locals also know that ISIS needs more fighters in places like Tikrit, Anbar, Diyala and toward Kirkuk.

The oil of Kirkuk could make an independent Kurdistan economically viable.

When KRG forces seized the oil-rich city of Kirkuk last week, there were hardly any protests from Ankara.

It provides an easy passage practicable in the depth of winter, from Armenia to Kirkuk and Baghdad.

This is Kirkuk, a town which contains, in its present name, one of the few memorials of the old Seleucid rulers.

Once we had reached the far side we set out to pick our way round Kirkuk to get astride the road leading thence to Altun Kupri.

Kirkuk is of very ancient origin—but of its early history little is known.

It was rumored that we would continue to push on and would attack Kirkuk.