In the week after a Peshmerga offensive designed to insulate key oil infrastructure from IS threats, North Gas Company and the Khabbaz oil field have come under attack.

A successful offensive Wednesday to the west of Kirkuk increases the buffer zone separating key oil infrastructure from IS militants.

The Ibrahim Khalil border crossing, the Kurdistan region’s busiest, has been periodically closed by Turkey as it targets PKK fighters and supporters.

After KRG forces win territory from IS militants south of Kirkuk, officers report widespread theft and destruction of homes belonging to displaced Sunni Arabs.

At both Iraq's largest oil field and its only deep water port, demonstrators had been blocking access roads but disbanded after receiving guarantees of employment.

Two senior northern oil officials have now been assassinated since late June.

As tensions rise in southeastern Turkey, a bomb hits the KRG's economic lifeline.