Iraq Kurd chief ready to hit militants in Syria, Iraq Iraqi Kurdistan is prepared to strike militants anywhere, including neighbouring Syria, but the Kurds must avoid being drawn into its civil war, the autonomous region's president Massud Barzani tells AFP in an exclusive interview. Barzani's remarks came after militants carried out a late-September attack on a security service headquarters in the Kurdish region's capital Arbil, killing seven people - a rare occurrence in an area usually spared the violence plaguing other parts of Iraq. Images and soundbites.