TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY JOSEPH KRAUSS Mo

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY JOSEPH KRAUSS Mohammed Mullah Hassan, the mayor of Khanaqin, speaks during an interview with AFP in the Kurdish town in the Diyala province on December 4, 2008. Khanaqin is in one of 12 mixed areas in northern and eastern Iraq that the Kurds would like to absorb into their autonomous region through a popular referendum written into the constitution. In these areas the Kurds view the Support Councils -- tribal gatherings aimed at purging their areas of radical Islamist militias -- as illegal tribal militias loyal to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, and Iraq's presidential council has called on Maliki to suspend the groups. AFP PHOTO / ALI YUSSEF (Photo credit should read ALI YUSSEF/AFP via Getty Images)