Kurdish foreign minister removed

Iraqi officials report Kurdish Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has been removed by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. This occurred as Kurds launched a boycott following comments made by  al-Maliki linking ISIS extremists and Baathists to the Kurdish Regional Government in Irbil. The Kurds strongly dispute al-Maliki’s allegations, claiming he wants to scapegoat the Kurds for his failures in northern Iraq and divert attention from how ISIS militants have poured into Iraq and waged warfare against the government.