Several hundred students and professors protested April 18 outside Salahuddin University in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil, calling for the Kurdish government to end corruption, be transparent in governance and improve economic conditions, among other demands. The demonstration prompted a crackdown by security forces and militiamen belonging to the ruling Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). While the ethnically Arab parts of Iraq have long experienced instability because of the sectarian conflict in the country and the wider region, the semi-autonomous northern region of Kurdistan was, until recently, the country's most secure. However, Kurdistan has been experiencing significant public agitation in the past few days, particularly in Sulaymaniyah province. The unrest has spread from the city of Sulaymaniyah to Arbil, the capital of the KRG, with security forces quickly quelling the protests with beatings and arrests. Civil society groups and Kurdish opposition parties Goran, Kurdistan Islamic Union and Kurdistan Islamic Group are the most involved in the unrest. The groups are opposed to the decades-old domination of Kurdish politics by the two main factions, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of KRG President Masoud Barzani and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. While discontent against the KDP-PUK hegemony has surfaced on many previous occasions, this latest wave of social disturbances, which first began in mid-February, appears to be more serious and buoyed by the unrest in the wider region. This instability comes eight months before the United States is set to complete its military withdrawal from the country. Washington and its Arab allies, particularly Saudi Arabia, are already concerned about how a U.S. exit from the country would enhance the Iranian position in Iraq and the wider Persian Gulf region, a fear exacerbated by unrest on the Arabian Peninsula, particularly in Yemen and Bahrain. Unrest in the Kurdish areas, where KDP and PUK militias are more prominent than actual KRG Interior Ministry forces, further undermines an already fragile Iraqi state. The Iraqi central government remains a weak entity, hostage to both internal ethno-sectarian splits and the wider struggle involving regional powers and the United States. At this stage, the protests involve at best thousands of people and do not constitute an immediate threat to the Kurdish establishment. However, if the KDP and PUK do not address public concerns in a meaningful way and instead rely on the use of force to put down dissent, the situation could deteriorate. Infighting among the Kurds carries the risk of weakening them internally and thus their position within Iraq's delicate three-way political balance, creating opportunities for — and power struggles between — the Sunnis and Shia. Such a destabilizing effect could hamper Washington's effort to withdraw troops from the country while still being able to contain Iran.