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A new report says that the surveillance has been going on for awhile, and that Turkey has caught Israeli drones flying over its southern provinces. They also say that PKK leaders have repeatedly visited Israel in recent months, presumably to get access to the data.

The consequences of the move are so far unclear, but Turkish officials believe that the data was used to help the PKK set up training camps in Northern Syria in places where the presence of border patrol isn’t as strong.

The revelation could have serious consequences for Israel’s already strained relationship with Turkey. So far Israeli officials haven’t addressed the latest claims, but in September Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman urged Israel to begin arming the PKK to “punish” Turkey for perceived diplomatic slights.

Kurdistan’s Higher Judicial Council confirmed receiving a warrant for Hashemi’s arrest, though they noted that the regional interior ministry was in opposition to handing over Hashemi, and no decision has yet been made by the largely autonomous region about his return.

At the same time, the Higher Judicial Council appeared to confirm a full travel ban on Hashemi, meaning he is basically stuck inside of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s territory for the foreseeable future. There had been talk of him fleeing into exile.

The effort to arrest Hashemi, the top ranking Sunni Arab in the government, and to oust other high ranking Sunni officials has led to a major crisis in the Iraqi parliament, and al-Iraqiya, the largest party in the nation, has confirmed it will continue to boycott parliamentary sessions to protest attempts at arresting Hashemi.

The details of the session were not made public, but were said to have included a formal apology from ruling party MP Hussein al-Assady to the Kurdistan Alliance for calling President Jalal Talabani a “terrorist.”

The biggest talks were between Prime Minister Maliki and members of the boycotting factions, including Kurdistan regional President Barzani and parliamentary speaker Osama al-Nujeifi. Maliki said the talks with Nujeifi will have a “positive impact” on the political crisis.

The talks with Barzani were quite detailed, with the Kurdish President continuing to press for federalism, warning of an impending “catastrophe” if Maliki continued to centralize power. He did, however, insist he didn’t want to get between Maliki and the Sunni Arabs related to attempts to arrest Hashemi.

Maliki and Barzani are said to have agreed on the importance of separating politics and legal questions, though Maliki clearly does not believe (at least publicly) that his attempt to arrest key political rivals as terrorists as a conflict of interest.

Turkish officials say the attack was launched after drones spotted the group and assumed them to be militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Turkish officials insist they had “no way of knowing” that the people they were killing weren’t militants.

The killings sparked major protests in Istanbul as well as a number of Kurdish cities in Turkey. Police arrested several of the protesters and used tear gas to disperse the crowds. Turkish MP Nazmi Gur said most of the slain were teenagers who smuggle fuel into Turkey for a living, and that officials should have known smugglers were also operating in the area.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Erdogan said that the authorities were still trying to identify all of the slain, and said that they appear to have been Turkish citizens from the Kurdish border region. They added that the families will be compensated for the killings.

The Kurdistan bloc has also confirmed talks with an Iranian delegation, which reportedly included one of the top figures in Iran’s Quds Force, but reports suggest that disputes on where to hold talks have not been resolved.

Maliki’s control over the defense and interior ministry gives him de facto control over all the national government’s troops, and a number of top officials, including Kurdistan President Massud Barzani, were afraid to go to Baghdad for fear of being captured by Maliki’s troops. Maliki, by the same token, is said to have rejected going to the Kurdish stronghold of Arbil, where the regional government’s Peshmearga hold sway.

The situation in Iraq is deteriorating rapidly, with Maliki ruling out leaving power even though his coalition government appears to have collapsed, and warning of “rivers of blood” if the nation’s Sunni Arabs seek to establish a Kurdistan-style autonomous region. Hashemi is in hiding in Kurdistan, while Maliki is demanding that parliament remove deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq for publicly criticizing him.

Maliki lost the largest bloc, the secular Iraqiya bloc, after he ordered Vice President Tareq Hashemi arrested as a “terrorist.” Hashemi has gone into hiding in Kurdistan, and the Kurdish blocs have also withdrawn from the coalition to protest the attempted arrest.

Iraqiya’s leader, Ayad Allawi, has warned that Maliki is acting more and more like Saddam Hussein in his treatment of political rivals, and that arrests on claims of “terrorism” are an old policy. Iraqi state TV has been broadcasting confessions from detained Heshemi bodyguards claiming they were launching terrorist attacks.

Normally the fall of a coalition government in a parliamentary system would move Maliki into the role of “interim prime minister” until a new majority could be cobbled together and, failing that, new elections would be called. Maliki has given no indication that this will be the case, however, and with his centralization of control over the military and the national police it is unclear if anyone could remove him from power if he decides to stay.

Iraqiya, which actually beat Maliki’s State of Law Party in the last elections, is reported to be trying to cobble together a majority, with Kurdish support. Though this is theoretically possible the last election led to months of “interim government” with no bloc able to form a majority until the US and Iranian officials both pressed their allies within the government to agree on keeping Maliki in power. Both appeared to believe Maliki would be on their side, but it is becoming increasingly clear that his agenda is about centralization of power, not placating a foreign ally.

Iraqiya has even taken the rather surprising step of calling on the National Alliance, the other Shi’ite political bloc, to nominate a replacement for Maliki. Iraqiya’s statement says that it is necessary to form a “post-occupation government” to prevent a new dictatorship.

At the moment, however, any nominee would immediately find himself on the prime minister’s enemies list. In the mean time Maliki’s statements on the matter center of demanding the Kurdistan Regional Government turn over Hashemi. Since the KRG controls the only significant fighting force not under Maliki’s direct command, the Peshmearga, the Maliki government would not be able to forcibly take him without considerable effort, and with the risk of sparking a full scale civil war.

“Its up to the Kurdistan region to decide whether it has made a strategic decision to stay part of Iraq or it has made up its mind to establish an independent state” insisted Luyabi, “if the later is their choice, I do acknowledge they have every right to that.”

Luyabi declared that he had “two principles” that could never be compromised on, that development in the oil sector needed to be planned centrally and that all marketing of oil needed to be done by the central government.

The KRG has disputed this claim, and has repeatedly made deals with Western oil companies to develop oil fields within their semi-autonomous area without submitting the proposals through Luyabi’s ministry.

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The truce, which was brokered by former K.R.G. Premier Nechirvan Barzani, requires Party Of A Free Life Of Kurdistan (P.J.A.K.) rebels to end their attacks on Iran and promise they will no longer encroach on Iranian territory. For its part, Iran will cease its operations on the rebels. Should fighting resume, the K.R.G. will be responsible for sending its own Peshmerga troops to quash any flare-ups.

Since early July, Iran has been shelling parts of northern Iraq, mostly the Jasusan Mountains, where the rebels have set up camps. Iranian troops were also reported inside Iraqi territory. The area is within the Kurdish Autonomous Region, which has partial self-rule but is still subservient to Baghdad. The P.J.A.K., an offshoot of the better-known Kurdistan Workers Party (P.K.K.) is seeking more autonomy for Kurdish people, particularly those in Iran.

At least five Iraqi civilians were killed during the assaults. Even more rebels were reported killed, but due to the remoteness of the area, independent confirmation is impossible. Some Iranian Revolutionary Guards may have died as well.