An explosion in Kirkuk shocked the city last night. A car bomb exploded in Kirkuk’s al-Adan neighborhood on Saturday evening, killing at least two people and wounding 10 others. It went off on the main Kirkuk-Baghdad road and security forces cordoned off the area out of fear there might be another rigged vehicle.
Meanwhile, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi announced on Saturday Iraq is prepared to intervene militarily if the Kurdish region’s planned independence referendum results in violence. He carefully noted that should the Iraqi population be “threatened by the use of force outside the law,” then Baghdad would intervene militarily. He also added that he would never close the door to negotiations and that they are always possible
Lastly, dozens of Iraqi and Kurdish immigrants detained in the United States have gone on a hunger strike to protest unfair treatment by immigration authorities. Dozens of Chaldean and Kurds were arrested by authorities in the US in early June after Baghdad agreed to a deal with the Trump administration which saw Iraq removed from the countries listed on a “travel ban.” Over 1,400 Iraqis received removal orders, and 288 were detained
