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As disputed territories bleed, security turf war intensifies

Federal, Kurdish, and local authorities are scrambling to combat a rash of militant attacks – and using the occasion to reinforce contentious territorial claims.
A business owner collects pieces of his shop after a car bomb exploded in the Tiseen neighborhood of Kirkuk in April 2013. (KAMARAN NAJM/Iraq Oil Report/Metrography)

KIRKUK - Territorial disputes and militant violence are intensifying around the volatile city of Kirkuk, prompting a disjointed response from competing security authorities that appear to be exacerbating tensions rather than improving public safety.

Bombs and shootings over the past month in and around Kirkuk city have killed dozens and injured hundreds, part of campaign waged by militant groups that killed more than 1,000 people nationwide in July. In the benighted and ethnically mixed Tuz district, more than 48 people have been killed and 113 injured in at least eight bomb and gun attacks in the past month.

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