Remember the Kurds?

The Kurds in Northern Iraq, apparently feeling left out of the plans for a "New Iraq" are taking things into their own hands and taking on the Turks in the process according to this article, Northern Iraq - calm like a bomb, by W Joseph Stroupe in the Asia times.

As negotiations at the United Nations on a new resolution for Iraq apparently near a close, developments with respect to the Kurds and north Iraq, where there has been relative calm until now, are looking more and more ominous. Recently, the People's Congress of Kurdistan (the former Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK), announced an abrupt end to its five-year ceasefire with Turkish forces, warning that it would soon resort to violent means to achieve its ends.

Within a few days of the announcement, Kurdish forces in southern Turkey did attack Turkish forces, prompting a violent response. Additionally, according to a recent Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty report, "Kamis Djabrailov, chairman of the International Union of Kurdish Public Organizations that represents the Kurdish minorities in Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia and other CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States], told Interfax on 31 May that his organization approves the announcement three days earlier by the People's Congress of Kurdistan that it will end on 1 June its five-year ceasefire in hostilities with the Turkish armed forces."

Hence, the regional political, diplomatic and even military mobilization of Kurdish forces, in an attempt to secure its own interests as the June 30 date for the handover of sovereignty to Iraq nears, appears to be under way. In verification of that fact, on June 7, Masoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan threatened to pull out of the interim government unless the new United Nations Security Council resolution guarantees Kurdish autonomy and a veto over the direction of the interim government as promised in the draft interim constitution, which was very reluctantly signed by the Shi'ite representatives, but which is something the Shi'ite majority refuses to accept under any circumstances.

The US has used the Kurds for the last decade plus and they now feel left out politically once again and that once again they have to look out for their own best interests. This will certainly not be compatable with the administrations goals for Iraq, once they figure out what their goal is.
UPDATE
Juan Cole has some thoughts on the Kurdish situation.