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North of Iraq, Kurdistan: Iran's army crossed the border and
penetrated five kilometers into Iraqi territory at the Kandil Mountains
near the Turkish border, Kurdish media reports. "The Iranian army
launched a full-scale war," a local official in the region said. (1)

"Nadir.org" also reported about secret intelligence and military
meetings between Turkey, Iran and the Kurdish Party PUK (2), which
controls the south of Kurdistan while the other main Kurdish Party KDP
rules the north.

Apparently NATO country Turkey has sent 200 military officers to Iran for collaborating during the intrusion. (2)



Yesterday the Norwegian oil company DNO announced that a large western
oil company has offered $700m for oil assets in Iraqi Kurdistan owned
by DNO. DNO refused to name the company, but industry executives
speculated that Royal Dutch Shell was a possible bidder, MSNBC said
(3). Shell on Wednesday refused to comment.

The Tawke oil fields of DNO are located at the Kurdish town Zakho (Zakhu), near the Turkish border (6).



In 2005, Shell signed an agreement with Baghdad to study the northern
Kirkuk oilfield. There are strong disputes between the Kurdish
authorities and the Iraqi central government about oil profits and
Kirkuk in particular.



This year in November a referendum takes place about the affiliation of the oil-rich region round Kirkuk.



On May 14 we reported (4) about a power struggle in the Kurdish PUK
between the popular PUK military leader Nawshirwan (Noshirwan) Mustafa
and the PUK chief Jalal Talabani, who is also President of Iraq.

After a deadly attack in Kurdistan on May 9 in Erbil a Kurdish intelligence officer spoke about a power struggle within the PUK.



"The attack that targeted the city of Irbil (Erbil) was expected,
despite the intense security operations in recent days. We had
intelligence information that terrorist groups had plans to disrupt
security and to bring the instability of Baghdad and central Iraq to
Kurdistan," a high-level Kurdish source then told the Italian Aki News.



Without naming parties involved, the security source also criticized
"attempts to make changes in sensitive security positions in
Sulaymaniya."



The leadership of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, headed by Iraqi
President Jalal Talabani, was apparently at that time implementing
changes in the security apparatus around Sulaymaniya, removing security
officials who belong to a rival faction within the PUK, led by
Noshirwan Mustafa, who lost the party leadership elections to Talabani
several months ago.



We also reported about the group "Islamic State in Iraq" that took
responsibility for the bombing in Erbil/Irbil on May 9 and for the
kidnapping of three US soldiers on May 12 in Mahmudiya, South of Iraq.

We considered that group - who had been described as the "Al
Qaeda/al-Qaida in Iraq" by mainstream corporate media - as a hoax for
covering up false-flag terror attacks and abductions.



On July 18 the current inhabitants of the White House admitted in a
press conference that this "Al Qaida/al-qaida in Iraq" never existed.(5)

article with  sources