Fate of key Iraqi force up in air ahead of election: "The fate of a US-backed security force comprising Arabs and Kurds in Iraq's tense north is to be decided after next Sunday's elections, only two months after it was set up to avert a civil war.
American and Iraqi officers in Kirkuk, 240 kilometres (150 miles) north of Baghdad, said the tripartite unit's role and numbers are to be re-evaluated at a high-level meeting on March 9, two days after parliamentary polls.
The US military has repeatedly warned that Arab-Kurd tensions, provoked by disputes over land and oil rights, are the biggest threat to Iraq's long-term stability.
Any break-up or scaling-back of the combined security force would be seen as a major blow to reconciliation efforts.
The force of about 1,350 comprising US troops, Iraqi soldiers and police, and Kurdish peshmerga (former rebel) fighters, aims to build trust between Arabs and Kurds and head off an armed conflict."
