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Recognizing that it has little control over US decision-making , the Kurdish leadership is struggling to strike a delicate balance between a US-led " regime change " and the preservation of hard-won gains in two self-rule enclaves in northern Iraq . " The people who wanted Saddam to be hanged and the people who were defending Saddam both were expecting this verdict , " said Mahmoud Othman , a Kurdish lawmaker widely seen as neutral by Sunnis and Shiites . The official added that Turkey is aided by " peshmerga " fighters , who belong to a Kurdish military faction allied with Turkey . Turkey has been fighting for years against the PKK , a Kurdish group seeking an independent homeland in the border region between Iraq , Iran and Turkey . The Turkish government is very wary of the threat of a Kurdish insurgency , spurred on by Iraqi Kurds . The official said Kurdish reconciliation is intrinsically important , but that Kurdish failure to reach a comprehensive agreement will not harm plans for reactivating the INC. Iraq has reiterated its rejection of the UK-Dutch plan which proposes to partially suspend the embargo on Iraqi oil exports , provided Baghdad complies with weapons inspections . He has used chemical weapons against his own people ( at least on people who are nominally Iraqi : it was a Kurdish village that was in open revolte against Hussein 's rule ) . VOA 's Margaret Besheer is in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq , and tells us hundreds of Kurds have volunteered to be witnesses at the trial , hoping for justice . Some Kurdish media reacted pessimistically to the results of the talks , doubting that they could have been successful when the areas of disagreement were so basic . Yet according to one report , the Kurdish and Shi'ite blocs recently met in closed session to curtail Mashhadani 's powers . The real challenge for Stover and Mufti came when the Kurdish forces , aided by U.S. air support and 1,000 paratroopers who seemingly arrived overnight , succeeded in breaking through the Iraqi front line in northern Iraq and retaking Kirkuk . The Kurdish civilians who died had the misfortune to be caught up in that exchange .