Iraq and Kurdistan struggle for control of Kirkuk and oil fields

There is not much attention being paid to this issue in the Western Press. The US and UN have attempted to get the two sides to agree to a negotiated solution but this seems to have gotten nowhere. The Kurds in particular seem about ready to de facto assert their control of some regions. This could very well lead to armed conflict as the article mentions. Saddam had settlled Arabs in some of the areas and now they face discrimination as the Kurds try to wrest control from the central government. The conflict is exacerbated by the fact that there are huge oil riches involved in the areas under dispute.

This is from AFP. There is also a similar article in the Washington Post.
Iraq-Kurd impasse seen to threaten unrest
By Mehdi Lebouachera (AFP) – 23 hours ago

BAGHDAD — Kurdish demands to expand their autonomous region in northern Iraq to include the Kirkuk oil fields and other districts threaten to trigger armed conflict, diplomats and analysts warn.

Six years after the US-led invasion in which Kurdish rebel groups were key allies, their decades-old claims to historically Kurdish-inhabited areas remain unresolved by the new Iraqi government in which they hold both the presidency and a deputy premiership.