between the Baghdad squeeze and the other provinces- I think there is - but too soon to directly correlate them. There have been a series of articles about the pick up in trouble up north though - like this one -
KIRKUK, Iraq --While the world focuses on Baghdad's security, a series of bombings here may be the long-feared start of a second deadly war in Iraq -- this one between Kurds and Arabs, both with claims on a territory atop one of the world's largest oil reserves.
If the escalating violence in Kirkuk erupts into all-out fighting between heavily armed Kurdish and Arab groups, it could spark a wider conflict involving Turkey or Iran. That risk puts the United States in a bind, caught between ally Turkey, which is on the side of Arabs and ethnic Turkomen here, and the Kurds, another strong U.S. ally.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2007/02/13/in_northern_iraq_another_war_looms/I would point you to a good resource to follow - today in iraq - you can type that in a search engine and they do a fair job of keeping up with the actions as they occur. It is clear to me the trouble is moving north.
If someone did directly say the effect of the surge was to move the trouble out of Baghdad I would be interested in seeing it. It is one of those dud things - where you instinctively know it is true -but hard to prove.
Joe