Kurdish president quits after weeks of strife

Masoud Barzani, the Iraqi Kurdish president, yesterday resigned after a failed bid for independence prompted a military and economic retaliation from Baghdad.

Mr Barzani, who has campaigned for Kurdish self-determination for nearly four decades, asked parliament in a letter to take measures to fill the resulting power vacuum. “I refuse to continue in the position of president of the region after Nov 1,” said the letter, published by his Kurdistan Democratic Party. “I will continue as a Peshmerga”, or Kurdish fighter.