Itaq/Kurdistan: As Baghdad Government Stumbles, Iraqi Kurdistan Officials Call for Partition

May 25, 2016 | Erin Banco, International Business Times
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Kirkuk Gov. Najmaldin Karim swept to office on the promise of oil-fueled prosperity for residents of the Kurdish-majority province in northern Iraq. But, with oil exports at a record low, it's a pledge that the former Washington-based neurosurgeon has failed to keep. In May, shipments of crude from fields in the Kurdistan region fell to 430,000 barrels per day from 512,000 barrels daily the previous month. Government workers, hired on dreams of a booming economy, have gone unpaid for four months and scores of unemployed men scour the city's streets for work, however temporary.