Relative Peace Underscores Issue Of Kurdish Region's Future

"Irbil (RFE/RL) by Charles Recknagel - With parliamentary elections due on 15 December, violence is expected to surge in much of Iraq. But the Kurdish autonomous region in the north of the country is a case apart. While the Arab Sunni center and Shi'ite south have been racked by violence since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraq's Kurdish region has been remarkably free of insurgent activity. That has enabled the Iraqi Kurds to concentrate on turning their region into a relatively prosperous area that has many of the trappings of a state."
The Kurdistani