Wow! The Iraqi Kurds Take Kirkuk!

Wonders never cease! Good for them!:

IRBIL, Iraq — Iraq was on the brink of disintegration Thursday as al-Qaeda-inspired fighters swept through northern Iraq toward Baghdad and Kurdish soldiers seized the city of Kirkuk without a fight.

...But after the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) captured fresh territory and set its sights on Baghdad, Iraq seemed to be fast slipping out of government control.

...The Iraqi army’s collapse in the north has deepened divides, in some cases physically. On the outskirts of the Christian village of Bakhdida in Iraq’s Nineveh plains less than 20 miles southeast of Mosul, a mound of newly dumped earth on the road forms a barrier between the Kurdish pesh merga forces and their new neighbors: militants from ISIS.

“We’ve had to block it off in case they try to cross,” said Brig. Gen. Ashkander Haji Saleh, standing on the berm. “We are watching their movements,” he said, pointing across the scrubland toward Mosul and an ISIS checkpoint that he estimated was just two miles away.

...For the Kurds, despite the concerns about having al-Qaeda-inspired militants so close, the withdrawal has meant consolidation and advances in areas where control has long been disputed with the central government in Iraq.

Bakhdida is one of them. It has harbored a Kurdish security presence since 2003, but the pesh merga has bolstered its presence in the village since the Iraq army streamed out of its nearby bases.

For the Kurds, fiercely disputed Kirkuk, a major oil-producing center with a diverse population, has been a far bigger prize.