<br /> Many Iraqi Kurds long for Kirkuk as the eventual capital of their own state.<br />Last year the oil-rich city seemed close to becoming a permanent center of Kurdish power.<br />Now, hopes for a Kurdish Kirkuk have faded.<br />An Iraqi national election on Saturday is expected to weaken the main Kurdish parties there.<br />The peshmerga, Iraqi military and Shi’ite Muslim militias defeated Islamic State in 2017.<br />Within weeks, Iraqi government forces advanced on Kirkuk and captured it quickly. <br />
