Turkey has thrown its support behind the Iraqi government, whose forces took control of the mainly Kurdish-run city of Kirkuk and its nearby oil fields after last month’s Kurdish independence referendum sparked a confrontation that threatens the balances in a war-weary region.
Iraqi troops were met with little resistance from Kurdish peshmerga fighters in a lightning-quick operation on Monday when they captured the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, part of disputed territories mainly controlled by the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) despite being outside of the autonomous region.
