Iraq’s Kurds vow to keep Kirkuk oil fields until referendum

ERBIL, Kurdistan (Bloomberg) -- Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurds plan a referendum for independence and will keep troops in the nearby oil hub of Kirkuk until people there can vote on whether to join the Kurdish enclave, a regional government spokesman said. “As a people, we have the right to be independent, but the issue is up to the Kurdish people, to be decided upon via a referendum,” Safeen Dizayee, spokesman of the Kurdistan Regional Government, said in an interview in the city of Erbil.

...