American military personnel included in the convoy which was targeted in the attack, Vedant Patel said.

“Our department of defense is investigating the attack on the convoy on April 7th. That convoy included US military personnel. We can confirm that there were no casualties and we of course forcefully oppose any action that threatens the safety and security of US personnel,” said Patel.

The SDF Commander in Chief, Mazloum Abdi, condemned the suspected Turkish attack, noting that the “patriotic and humanitarian” stances of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party annoy Turkey.

The Pentagon spokesperson stressed that the US forces will remain in Syria and Iraq and will continue supporting the “local partner forces to achieve the enduring defeat of ISIS.”

The Gas Growth Integrated Project, launched by French oil giant Total in 2021, aims to develop facilities to recover natural gas from several oil fields in southern Iraq. That’s where it is currently being “flared” — when the natural gas released through oil production is burned and released into the atmosphere. The project also aims to treat seawater for injection into oil reservoirs to boost production.

Total maintains a 45% share of the project, while Iraq’s Basra Oil Company owns 30%. QatarEnergies said the total investment in the project would be around $10 billion.

“We are pleased to be part of this significant development, which is important for Iraq’s energy sector,” Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs and head of QatarEnergy, said in a statement.

Qatar is one of the world’s biggest natural gas producers and has extensive experience in building gas infrastructure.

Iraq urgently needs to develop local gas resources to meet electricity demands, especially during the peak summer months. The country is heavily reliant on Iranian gas and electricity imports.

The World Bank estimates that Iraq flares nearly 18 billion cubic meters of gas a year, a volume that, if recaptured, could be worth more than $2 billion. Flaring is a huge source of air pollution and greenhouse gases.

Oil provides 90% of Iraq’s public revenues, but the industry has been mired in corruption and mismanagement since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that established a power-sharing government in Baghdad. Sectarian-based parties bicker over government ministries, appoint loyalists to key positions and dole out public sector jobs to supporters.

The oil-rich southern Basra region is among the country’s poorest and most underdeveloped, and residents say they have been sickened by the heavy air pollution caused by flaring.

ExxonMobile had been in negotiations over a similar multi-project deal, but it fell though after years of negotiations. Exxon announced in 2021 that it would be selling its shares from the West Qurna 1 oil field, and London-based BP is spinning off development of the Rumaila field, Iraq’s largest.

“More than 100 countries around the world rushed to send humanitarian aid to the quake victims in Turkey,” Turkish Consul General in Erbil Mouloud Yaqut said in a speech during a ceremony held in Shanidar Park in Erbil before the trucks set off to Turkey.

Yaqut thanked the KRG for the assistance it provided to the earthquake-affected people in Turkey.

The humanitarian aid by KRG to Turkey comes amidst harsh criticism by Sulaimani officials that there is a lack of medicine at the hospitals in the province.

More than 50,000 have been killed when magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 quakes struck 11 Turkish provinces – Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Elazig, Hatay, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa.

More than 13.5 million people in Turkey have been affected by the devastating quakes, as well as many others in northern Syria.

The suspension of the flights by Turkish Airlines is in protest to PKK activities in the region, Tanju Bilgiu Turkey's foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement.

It also noted that the measure is expected to remain in place until July 3 and will be reviewed in light of closely monitored developments.

Speaking to Anadolu agency, Turkey's presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said there may be additional steps regarding this.

This is the second time that Turkish Airlines has suspended flights to and from Sulaimani airport, in 2017, Turkish Airlines suspended flights to Sulaimani Airport for a long time due to the Kurdistan Region's independence referendum.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and Masrour Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdistan region, announced the deal at a press conference in Baghdad.

“Halting the export of the region’s oil harms Iraq’s revenues,” Sudani said, adding that the governments would work toward passing a federal law detailing the sharing of funds from oil and gas exports.

Barzani said in a statement that while the deal is temporary, it is a “crucial step towards ending the long-standing dispute” between Irbil and Baghdad and “creates a positive and safe atmosphere to finally approve the national oil and gas law.”

Kurdish officials said the deal would allow exports to begin again as early as Tuesday.

Iraq stopped sending nearly half a million barrels of oil through the pipeline last month after an arbitration process by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) sided with Iraq in a long-standing dispute over the independent export of oil by the Kurdish regional government.

Baghdad and Erbil have been at loggerheads over oil revenues for years.

Iraq, OPEC’s second largest producer, filed for arbitration against Turkey in 2014 after the Kurdish region sidelined Iraq’s state-owned oil marketing company, SOMO, and began exporting crude oil through the neighboring country. Iraq claimed that all oil exports have to go through SOMO, as per a 1973 agreement with Turkey.

Iraq’s economy is one of the most oil-dependent in the world, according to the World Bank. While most of the country’s oil reserves are located in the south, the Kurdish region is heavily reliant on exports of the resource from northern fields.

Handren Hiwa, director of Sulaimani International Airport, told KurdSat that Turkish Airlines has suspended all flights to Sulaimani International Airport until April 11, without giving the reason for the suspension.

He added that they have officially requested an explanation from the Turkish Airlines through the Ministry of Transportation and Iraqi Airways to find out the reason for suspension of the flights.

Director of Sulaimani International Airport said, that they have no technical, security, financial and administrative issue to suspend flights.

This is the second time that Turkish Airlines has suspended flights to Sulaimani airport, in 2017, Turkish Airlines suspended flights to Sulaimani Airport for a long time due to the Kurdistan Region's independence referendum.

CENTCOM's statement gave no details of where in Syria the strike was carried out on Monday but said "no civilians were killed or injured."

"Though degraded", the jihadist group, which was ousted from its last territory in Syria in 2019, "remains able to conduct operations within the region with a desire to strike beyond the Middle East," said CENTCOM chief General Michael Kurilla.

Jabouri also "developed the leadership structure for ISIS" and his death will "temporarily disrupt the organization's ability to plot external attacks," CENTCOM said.

ISIS has claimed a number of deadly attack in Europe in recent years, including a November 2015 attack in Paris and its suburbs that killed 130 people and another attack in the French city of Nice in July 2016 that killed 86 people.

Some 900 US troops remain in Syria, most in the Kurdish-ruled northeast, as part of a US-led coalition battling remnants of ISIS who remain active in both Syria and neighboring Iraq, operating out of hideouts in desert and mountain area.

In October 2019, Washington announced it had killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in an operation in northwestern Syria.

The outcome, thrashed out in talks between federal and regional officials, spells the end of independent oil exports by the Kurdish regional government and marks a clear limit to its autonomy.

Ankara had stopped handling Kurdish oil last month after an international tribunal ruled in a nine-year-old dispute that Baghdad was right to insist on overseeing all Iraqi oil exports.

"Sales of Kurdistan crude will be managed from now on by the State Oil Marketing Organization," a federal government official told AFP on Saturday.

A "joint committee" formed by the federal and regional governments will supervise the export process, the official added.

Revenues will be paid into an account "overseen by Baghdad", a Kurdish official said.

The halt to exports through a pipeline to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan had left foreign oil firms with nowhere to pump Kurdish oil.

Norway's DNO, one of the main firms operating in Kurdistan, announced it was halting production at its wells.

Prior to Ankara's action on March 25, the autonomous region was exporting roughly 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude.

Oil exports are the key revenue source for both the federal and regional governments and their management has long been a sensitive topic in relations.

The Kurdistan government sees Baghdad as trying to profit from the region's resources, while the Iraqi government argues it should enjoy sovereign control over all of the country's oil production.

Iraq, the second largest producer within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), exports an average of 3.3 million bpd.

Iraqi deaths are estimated in the hundreds of thousands, and nearly 5,000 U.S. troops were killed in the war after President George W. Bush’s administration falsely claimed that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.

“This body rushed into a war,” said Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat who has pushed for years to repeal the powers.

Senators voted 66-30 to repeal the 2002 measure and also the 1991 authorization that sanctioned the U.S.-led Gulf War. If passed by the House, the repeal would not be expected to affect any current military deployments. But lawmakers in both parties are increasingly seeking to claw back congressional powers over U.S. military strikes and deployments, and some lawmakers who voted for the Iraq War two decades ago now say that was a mistake.

Supporters, including almost 20 Republican senators, say the repeal is crucial to prevent future abuses and to reinforce that Iraq is now a strategic partner of the United States. Opponents say the repeal could project weakness as the U.S. still faces conflict in the Middle East.

"The fluidity in Iraq and the ambitions of Iran are the two reasons why I'm opposed to repeal at this time," said Senator Jim Risch, a Republican from Idaho who sees Iraq as "less than a perfect security partner."

The repeal’s future is less certain in the House, where 49 Republicans joined with Democrats in supporting a similar bill two years ago. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has suggested he is open to supporting a repeal even though he previously opposed it, but Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has indicated he would like to instead replace it with something else. But it is unclear what that would be.

Kaine and Todd Young, R-Ind., who led the effort together, have said they believe a strong bipartisan vote sends a powerful message to Americans who believe their voices should be heard on matters of war and peace.

President Donald Trump’s administration cited the 2002 Iraq war resolution as part of its legal justification for a 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani, but the two war powers resolutions have otherwise rarely been used as the basis for any presidential action. About 2,500 U.S. troops remain in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government and assist and advise local forces.

A separate 2001 authorization for the global war on terror would remain in place under the bill, which President Joe Biden has said he will support.

The victims, one aged 13 and the other aged 16, were shepherds, said reporter of Kurdsat News.

The children played with the mortar shell which reportedly was an un-detonated, old military-grade.

Security forces rushed to the scene and launched an investigation, but have not commented on the incident as the investigation is still incomplete.

The killing has rekindled tensions between Turkish-backed armed groups controlling the area and Kurdish residents and fed into a power struggle between rival armed factions that control different parts of northwest Syria.

At the request of Kurdish residents, fighters from the armed opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham deployed en masse around Jinderis Tuesday, while an opposition war monitor reported that the group had taken over the headquarters of Ahrar Sharqiya group, a Turkish-backed armed opposition group, in the area.

A HTS spokesperson declined to comment on the matter, but there was a heavy presence of the group’s fighters in and around Jinderis Tuesday crowds of Kurds attended the funerals of the victims.

Meanwhile, Turkish forces deployed on the road linking the town of Atmeh, controlled by HTS, with Jinderis.

The assailants who shot the Kurdish men as they were lighting a fire in celebration of the Nowruz holiday allegedly belonged to the Jaish al-Sharqiya, a splinter group of Ahrar Sharqiya.

The Syrian National Army, an alliance of the various Turkish-backed factions in the area, issued a statement condemning the killing of the Kurdish men in “the strongest possible terms” and promising to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Jinderis was controlled by Kurdish fighters until 2018 when it was taken by Turkey-backed opposition fighters who still hold it. The capture of the town displaced many Kurds, while those who remained complain that they are often mistreated and subjected to discrimination.

“We call for an end to these violations and an end to the demographic change [in the area]," said Zakaria Ali, one of the Kurdish protesters. "All the Syrian people are our brothers, but criminals are not our brothers."

Ahmad Hassan, a member of the Kurdish National Council party, called for "just punishment" for the killers and for international protection for the Kurds and "removal of all factions from villages and cities in the region."

In the hours after the shooting, some Kurds from Jinderis traveled in a convoy to the town of Atmeh, about nine miles away, where they called on HTS to seize control of Jinderis from the Turkish-backed militias.

While HTS is designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. and other western countries due to its historic ties with al-Qaida, many Kurdish residents of the area said they see it as preferable to the Turkish-backed groups.

HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani met with a group of the victims’ families late Monday evening and promised revenge.

“The ones who harmed you will be killed, God willing,” Jolani told a group.

Clashes between Turkey-backed opposition gunmen and Kurdish fighters have left scores of people dead on both sides in Syria.

Since 2016, Turkey has launched three major operations inside Syria, targeting Syria’s main Kurdish group— the People’s Protection Units or YPG.

The YPG, however, forms the backbone of U.S.-led forces in the fight against Islamic State militants and has been a proven top U.S. ally in Syria.

The law consists of 15 articles that define the procedures for conducting both elections of the provincial councils and parliament.

During the parliament session, 70 independent MPs and members of some factions protested against the law and tried to stop the session during the vote on the amendment to the electoral law, so the speaker of the House of Representatives tried to take them out of the session.

Srwa Mohammed, a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) faction, told Kurdsat News that his faction did not agree with the provisions set for the electoral process in Kirkuk, which is why they didn't vote in favor of the amendment.

According to the amendment, the elections in Kirkuk will be held on the same day as in other Iraqi provinces, but the voter registration must be reviewed based on the 1957 census and several other changes will be made in Kirkuk.

The session, which was attended by 189 MPs, approved all the amendments to the parliamentary and provincial council elections law.

According to Articles 2, 6 and 7 of the law, the provincial council elections must be held before 20/12/2023, while the next sessions must be held 45 days before the expiration of the term of the provincial councils.

The law also sets the conditions for running for parliamentary and provincial elections, candidates must be at least 30 years old, hold a bachelor's degree and have no criminal convictions.

The law clarified that the house of representatives consists of 329 seats, including nine for minorities.

Ziad Jabar, the head of the PUK faction told Kurdsat News on Monday, that the elections should be held on time and the electoral law should be amended and the differences should be solved.

The head of the PUK faction said, the other communities and minorities should have their own genuine representatives, adding that the representation of cities and towns is not balanced and must be resolved.

The Kurdistan Region Presidency has set November 18, 2023 as the date for the parliamentary elections to be held.

Meanwhile, the parties and factions in parliament have not yet reached a final decision on the amendment of some articles of the electoral law and the seats of communities are yet to be determined.

Abdullah Ihsan, director of Duhok emergency hospital told KurdSat News that 19 people were injured in fireworks explosions in Duhok province yesterday, 17 of them were slightly injured and returned home after treatment.

Two of the injured were seriously injured and remained in hospital for treatment, director of Duhok emergency hospital said.

Millions of Kurdish people celebrate Newroz on March 21, on the first day of spring, lighting torches and fireworks.

Men and women in Sulaimani and the town of Akre welcome their new year lighting torches and fires, climbing up a mountain where large Kurdish flags had been put on display under colorful explosions of fireworks.

Millions of Kurdish people celebrate Newroz on March 21, on the first day of spring. It symbolizes the passing of the dark season, and the arrival of the season of light.

The festivity is celebrated by Kurds in Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria.

For many Kurds, this year's Newroz is saddened by the news coming from Rojava, Bakur and Rojhelat, where a 7.8 magnitude quake killed tens of thousands of people.

The festival has political importance as it symbolizes the Kurdish culture, and the struggle of the Kurds to have their own autonomous nation.

More than 20 million Kurds live in Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Turkey.

On March 16, 1988, the Baath regime’s forces unleashed a cocktail of deadly gases on Halabja. Iraqi aircrafts attacked the city with chemical weapons killing some 5,000 people and injuring thousands more.

The genocide was one of many horrific crimes committed by the Baath regime under Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship against the Kurdistan Region’s people.

The Halabja victims were among some 180,000 people killed during the regime’s “Anfal campaign” against the Kurds.

The attack still haunts Halabja as its residents, now estimated at around 200,000, still fight for justice, care for the ill and hunt for missing relatives.

In a statement on the anniversary of the chemical attack on Halabja, Bafel Jalal Talabani, the President of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, said that the government has been irresponsible, but this negligence towards the people of Halabja must not continue.

“It is time to move beyond catchphrases and into deeds in serving Halabja and its people, and we must provide these services in appreciation for the valued citizens' sacrifice and sovereignty,” Bafel Jalal Talabani said.

On March 13, 2018, a total of 5,500 relatives of victims sued 25 European companies and individuals, including Iraqis, who they say aided Saddam’s regime in developing its chemical weapons stockpile.