Security forces standing guard as Iraqi Kurds take part in a demonstration outside the U.S. consulate in Erbil, the capital of the semiautonomous Kurdish region, on Friday. Many have questioned why U.S. President Donald Trump didn’t intervene to defend them against Iraqi forces, which include Shiite paramilitary groups—some of them backed by Iran. As the U.S. has sought to remain neutral in the latest conflict between the Kurds and Baghdad, Iraqi forces pushed Kurdish Peshmerga fighters out of much of the territory outside the official boundary of the Kurds’ semiautonomous region, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. In the eyes of many Kurds, Washington and Tehran were now on the same side against them. “America is allied with its own enemy,” said 24-year-old Dilshad Shahab, referring to Iran. “This is a duplicitous American policy we cannot get our heads around. We want clarification: are you a friend, or an […]