ERBIL, Iraq—Residents of the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq have grown accustomed to an unusual sight as the battle for Mosul unfolded in recent weeks: columns of Iraqi armor on their roads. The sight, to many, was shocking. Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, after all, spent decades struggling to win self-rule from Baghdad. Until the joint effort to oust Islamic State from Mosul transformed Iraqi politics, the presence of Iraq’s federal...

Source: Wall Street Journal November 03, 2016 09:30 UTC