After years of focusing divided Iraq on a shared fight against the Islamic State group, the United States is now straining to leverage its limited influence to avoid a full-blown conflict between the Iraqi and Kurdish forces it has armed and trained.
Experts say that a path toward reconciliation, in some form, exists. But it will be a long, arduous test of nerves that could expose the U.S.-backed war effort in Iraq to risks from insurgents and from militia backed by neighboring Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump declared on Monday that the United States was not taking sides in the internal conflict between Baghdad and independence-seeking Kurds, as Iraqi government forces captured the Kurdish-held oil city of Kirkuk.