Iraq tensions spike after warnings of attacks on Kurds

ArbIL: Tensions escalated between Iraq’s Kurds and Baghdad as warnings of a “major attack” by government forces prompted Kurdish peshmerga fighters to temporarily block roads from other parts of the country.

The move came just over two weeks after Kurdish voters overwhelmingly backed independence in a nonbinding referendum Baghdad slammed as illegal.

Iraqi Kurdish forces closed the two main roads connecting Arbil and Dohuk with Mosul for several hours, a Kurdish military official said.

“The closure was prompted by fears of a possible attack by Iraqi forces on the disputed areas held by Kurdish forces but outside the autonomous Kurdish region,” the official said.

Kurdish authorities said late into Wednesday that they feared Iraqi government forces and allied paramilitary units were gearing up to launch an assault on the autonomous Northern region.

“We’re receiving dangerous messages that the Hashed alShaabi (paramilitary forces) and federal police are preparing a major attack from the southwest of Kirkuk and north of Mosul against Kurdistan,” the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Security Council said.

Security sources said yesterday that Iraq’s elite Counter Terrorism Service and Rapid Response Force had deployed more forces near peshmerga positions around Rashad, a village some 65km southwest of Kirkuk city.

The oilrich province of the same name, areas of which took part in the referendum, is disputed between the Kurds and Baghdad.

The spokesman for Iraq’s Joint Operations Command refused to confirm or deny preparations for an offensive against Kurdish forces.

Brigadier General Yahiya Rassul said his forces received images of the road barriers but that “dialogue” would resolve the problem.

“Our mission is clear: we are fighting a single enemy, Daesh,” he said, using an Arabic pejorative for the IS militant group.

“All that interests Iraqis is to liberate our country and beat the terrorist group.

“We do not forget the role played by the peshmerga.”

He said Iraqi government forces had previously operated close to peshmerga lines near the northern city of Tal Afar.

Asked if there had been movements of Iraqi forces close to peshmerga positions, Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the USled coalition battling IS in Syria and Iraq, said: “We don’t see that.”

The coalition has worked with both peshmerga and Iraqi progovernment forces in the battle to oust IS from areas it seized in Iraq in mid2014. — AFP