US general says Iraq dispute impedes ISIS fight
The top US general in Iraq says the fallout from last month's Kurdish vote for independence is diverting resources away from the war on the Islamic State group just as the coalition is on the verge of defeating the extremists.
US-backed Iraqi and Kurdish forces, who together have driven IS out of most of the country, are locked in an increasingly tense standoff.
Low-level clashes have broken out as federal forces have driven the Kurds from disputed areas, and on Thursday Iraq's prime minister rejected a Kurdish offer to "freeze" the referendum, an apparent attempt by the Kurds to save face.
Lt. Gen. Paul Funk told The Associated Press: "We don't need Iraqis killing Iraqis when we've got Daesh to kill out in the west," Daesh is another acronym for IS, which still controls territory straddling Iraq's western border with Syria.
Clashes broke out earlier this month when federal forces retook the disputed city of Kirkuk and other areas outside the autonomous Kurdish region that the Kurds had seized when IS swept across the country in 2014. Most of the Kurdish forces withdrew without a fight, but tensions remain.
