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Iraqs oil ministry can sue the Kurdistan regional government for possession of 1 million barrels of crude that have waited in a tanker circling off the Texas coast for more than five months, a U.S. judge said.

U.S. District Judge Gray Miller in Houston rejected the Kurds claims of sovereign immunity and said the regional governments plans to sell its crude in the U.S. gave him authority to hear the lawsuit.

Miller had previously ruled he had no authority to hear Iraqs dispute because the alleged misappropriation of the oil took place in Kurdistan, outside the jurisdiction of U.S. courts. After the Iraqis reworked their claim, Miller agreed the Kurds involvement in the U.S. oil market triggered a legal exception that properly placed the dispute over the cargo in his court.

The activity complained of is the taking of Iraqi oil for sale, there are specific allegations that it has been sold in the U.S., and the sale of oil in the U.S. creates a direct effect in the U.S., Miller said in a ruling yesterday.

In December, the Iraqi central government and the Kurdistan regional government reached a production-sharing accord that let the Kurds export up to 550,000 barrels of oil a day from northern Iraq, with 250,000 barrels of that amount placed under the control of the central government. That accord in Baghdad didnt address ownership of Kurdish shipments previously exported, according to court papers, leaving unresolved the dispute over the tanker off the Texas coast.

Miller said he wasnt making a final determination on ownership of the cargo. He also said he wont consider Iraqs bid to seize the oil or hold proceeds from its sale under court supervision unless and until the cargo is brought into U.S. waters. He said Iraq could make its request when that happens.

The two governments have been sparring over the tanker since late July, when Iraq persuaded a federal magistrate judge in Houston to issue a warrant letting federal agents seize the crude and store it ashore at Iraqi expense if the ship entered U.S. territorial waters.

The tanker has been circling a navigational buoy about 60 miles off Galveston, Texas, since then and was still there as of 4:35 a.m. local time today, according to Bloomberg tracking data.

The price of oil has fallen by almost half during the time the ship has waited offshore. The Kurds had initially hoped to sell the cargo for about $100 million.

Miller said hell apply Texas state laws covering stolen property to the case, which will also require him to interpret Iraqs constitution and related case law.

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Iraq Allowed to Sue Kurds Over Texas Oil Tanker in U.S.

Winston Churchill understood the significance of the black stuff seeping to the surface in the Kurdish plains of Mesopotamia when he included the region within Iraq as the British forged the nation in the 1920s.

In doing so, Churchill, the colonial secretary at the time, set in train almost a century of bickering between the Iraqi government and its Kurdish enclave over the areas estimated 45 billion barrels of crude.

While their latest dispute was temporarily resolved last month to help finance the struggle against Islamic State, the accord has not addressed differences between administrations in Baghdad and Erbil that include the future of Kirkuk, northern Iraqs main oil hub. The Iraqi government started pumping crude from Kirkuk via Kurdish pipes that bypass militant-held territory to Turkey, Al-Mada Press reported Jan. 1.

The need to finance military operations has brought together the Iraqi government and the Kurds, said Hussein Allawi, a Baghdad-based oil analyst. But this is a temporary agreement that does not resolve fundamental differences.

Under the deal, the Kurdistan Regional Government will share revenue from the 250,000 barrels a day that it had been unilaterally shipping from its territory to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. Iraq says it intends to increase exports from Kirkuk, which Kurdish Peshmerga forces are defending from Islamic State attack, by 300,000 barrels a day during 2015. The central government in Baghdad has also resumed budget payments to Kurdish authorities, including a one-time payment of $1 billion to cover expenses of the Peshmerga.

While the Iraqi central government is set to bank increased revenue, its oil exports to Turkey now depend on pipelines traversing the Kurdish region.

Should Baghdad try to withhold budget cash again we hold a key to their oil exports, Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the KRG, said Dec. 3, according to his governments website. The agreement also gives the KRGs oil sales through its pipelines tacit approval by Baghdad.

The shift in the balance of power explains why the pact may not last long.

Independent oil sales from the KRG are not going to be tolerated by Baghdad in the long term and eventually this deal will collapse, said Christian Sinclair, assistant director of Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Arizona.

The accord does not resolve long-standing points of friction between Baghdad and Erbil, that also include the KRGs ambitions for independence, Sinclair said.

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Iraq Oil Deal Evokes Churchill in Islamic State Battle

Last Updated Jan 8, 2015 12:16 PM EST

BAGHDAD Suicide attacks targeting security checkpoints and Shiite worshippers killed 23 people in Iraq on Thursday, officials said.

Police said a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a police checkpoint in the town of Youssifiyah, just south of the capital Baghdad, killing three police and four civilians, and wounding another 21 people.

Later on, a suicide bomber driving a pickup loaded with explosives struck a checkpoint manned by police and Shiite militiamen near the city of Samarra, killing eight people and wounding 23 others. Samarra and surrounding areas have repeatedly come under attack in recent months by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Samarra is 60 miles north of Baghdad.

After noon prayers, a suicide bomber set off his explosives belt among Shiite worshippers who were leaving a mosque in western Baghdad, killing eight worshippers and wounding 16 others.

The Islamic State extremist group and other Sunni radicals consider Shiites to be apostates deserving of death.

Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures from all attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists.

Iraq sees near-daily bombings and other attacks mainly targeting the Shiite majority and security forces. The attacks are often claimed by the Islamic State group, which seized much of northern and western Iraq last year.

2015 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Iraq suicide blasts kill 23

4 hours 33 minutes ago by CBS News

The ranks of terror groups in Syria and Iraq continue to swell with foreign fighters, according to John Carlin, the assistant attorney general for national security.

"There are over 18,000 foreign fighters in the Syria-Iraq region," Carlin told CBS News. "That includes individuals from over 60 countries around the world."

The 18,000 figure is an increase from the 13,000 foreign fighters the United Nations reported in September of last year. More than 3,000 of the fighters come from Western Europe and more than 100 come from the United States, according to Carlin. The majority are coming from the Syria-Iraq region.

The attack on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris has created a renewed focus on the threat of radicalized fighters carrying out attacks in their home countries. One of the two men suspected in the massacre that left 12 dead was convicted in 2008 of recruiting fighters in France to go and fight in Iraq.

No definite link between the suspects has been drawn to a specific terror group, but Mike Morell, former deputy director of the CIA, said "there's a good possibility we're looking at an al Qaeda in Yemen-directed attack." He points to Charlie Hebdo's history of publishing satirical cartoons that ridicule Islam.

"Al Qaeda has been very focused on media outlets that have lampooned the prophet Mohammed," said Morell.

In response to the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, Attorney General Eric Holder will fly to Paris on Sunday for international terror talks.

"We're really going to focus on foreign terrorist fighters and the problem of terrorism in Europe and in the U.S. and work on joint approaches to minimize the chances of an attack like this concurring again," said Carlin, who'll be in attendance at the talks.

One approach used in the U.S. has been a public campaign by the FBI aimed at curbing the number of individuals going overseas to fight. Launched in October, the campaign asks the public to help the FBI identify people who have traveled - or are planning to travel - overseas to engage in combat with terrorists.

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More Westerners fighting in Syria and Iraq, says DOJ official

The U.S. is looking at ways to increase its aid to the Iraqi security forces, including help with ways to counter roadside bombs and buildings rigged to explode, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the Joint Chiefs chairman, said Thursday.

But he said it's still unclear when the Iraqi troops will be ready to mount an offensive against Islamic State militants that have control of portions of northern and western Iraq. Speaking to reporters in his office, Dempsey said the U.S. will help with "some kind of broad counter-offensive" when Iraq is able to conduct the military assault and any needed reconstruction afterward.

Dempsey spoke after meeting with Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, for more than an hour.

"We're working with Iraq's military and civilian leaders to determine the pace at which we will encourage them and enable them to do a counteroffensive," Dempsey said. "So when the government of Iraq finds itself ready not only to conduct the military operations necessary to recapture their territory, but also to follow it with the humanitarian and reconstruction efforts, then they will, with us, initiate some kind of broad counteroffensive."

In the meantime, he said, the coalition has kept up "a drumbeat, a steady, building pressure" on Islamic State insurgents.

The U.S. has kept up a persistent bombing campaign against militant targets in Iraq and Syria, launching airstrikes on seven locations in Iraq on Wednesday.

Asked about Iran's military operations in Iraq, which have included airstrikes, Dempsey said Iraqi leaders have kept the U.S. informed about Iranian activities against IS. So far, he said, those operations haven't threatened U.S. troops or their mission. But, if that changes, he said the U.S. will adjust its military campaign plan.

"If it is a path that ties the two countries more closely together economically or even politically, as long at the Iraqi government remains committed to inclusivity of all the various groups inside the country, then I think Iranian influence will be positive," said Dempsey, adding that the U.S. is watching the relationship very carefully.

A key requirement for continued U.S. support is that Iraqi leaders work to make the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government more inclusive and beef up efforts to reach out to the Sunni tribes. The deep sectarian divide fueled the advances of the Islamic State militants across Iraq earlier this year as grievances led some to align with the extremists.

To date, Dempsey said that several hundred Sunni tribesmen have been brought into the Iraqi security forces. In addition, he said that several thousand new Iraqi troops have been trained, as U.S. training facilities in Irbil and Anbar Province get underway. Two other training locations are planned and should be operating in the coming weeks.

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Dempsey: US Eyes New Ways to Aid Iraq Forces