![A boy rides a bicycle with the flag of Kurdistan in Tuz Khurmato](https://freeamericanetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/irans-soleimani-arrives-in-kurdish-region-for-talks-about-crisis-with-baghdad.jpg)
File Photo – A boy rides a bicycle with the flag of Kurdistan in Tuz Khurmato, Iraq September 24, 2017. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
October 15, 2017
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani has arrived in Iraq’s Kurdistan region for talks about the escalating crisis between the Kurdish authorities and the Iraqi government following the Kurdish independence referendum, a Kurdish official said on Sunday.
Soleimani is the commander of foreign operations for Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, a military corp providing training and weapons to Iraqi paramilitary groups backing the Shi’ite-led government in Baghdad.
(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; writing by Maher Chmaytelli; editing by Louise Heavens)