| That'll tighten the Turkish turban... |
SULEIMANIYAH: The main Kurdish alliance is set to win two-thirds of the vote in Iraq's tense northern oil centre of Kirkuk, reports said Tuesday, fanning Turkish fears about Kurdish ambitions for the ethnically divided region. The alliance is also set to take a quarter of the seats in Iraq's new national assembly overall giving the long-oppressed minority a major say in the drafting of a new post-Saddam Hussein constitution, one of its leaders told a Kurdish daily. With just one district still to complete its count of Sunday's vote, the Kurdish alliance has won 68 percent of the vote in Kirkuk, the Kurdish weekly Hawlati (Citizen) reported. If confirmed, the result would give the Kurds 26 of the 41 seats on the provincial council, the paper said.