They also promised not to take Kirkuk, an oil-rich city they describe as their Jerusalem.

Kirkuk, an oil-rich city just outside the northern Kurdish region, is the linchpin of the Kurds' drive to retain their autonomy.

The 116th Cavalry Brigade was assigned to the northern part of Iraq, primarily in and around the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

Arabs are trying to lay claim to the oil-rich city, which Kurdish leaders say should be integrated into a proposed autonomous Kurdish region.

They settled mostly in the booming oil-rich city of Baku.

The country remains volatile, and disputes with the autonomous Kurdistan Region over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk have threatened to derail progress towards political stability.

Kurdish leaders are also pushing for Kirkuk, a oil-rich northern city, to be folded into administration of the Kurdish region.

He soon left Tehran to become a manual laborer in oil-rich city of Masjed Soleiman.

In Kirkuk, an oil-rich city in the north, a senior police commander was gunned down as he drove through the city, police officials said.

Such is the case in Kirkuk, the oil-rich city where Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen uneasily live side by side.