Political instability in Iraqi Kurdistan continues to grow, and mainstream news organizations are beginning to pick up on it. Meanwhile, there are reports that the PUK branch in London is under investigation for attempting to murder a member of the breakway reformist faction. Ironically, the attack comes almost a year to a day after Masud Barzani’s son Masrour allegedly sought to murder a leading Kurdish dissident.
Many Kurdish papers are discussing the irony of the fact that successful and largely violence-free elections have been held in the rest of Iraq, but not yet in Iraqi Kurdistan. As one prominent Kurdish observer wrote, “You see how Baghdad is putting Kurdish democracy to shame: open vs. close lists, historical alliances being broken among Shias, winners and losers, etc.”