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Iraqi PM warns Kurdish forces of changing position

19 November 2012 18:38 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki warned Kurdish regional security forces not to change positions or move close to the position of central government troops, a military spokesman said on Monday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"Commander in Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces (Maliki) warns the regional guard forces (known as Peshmerga) not to change their positions or approach the (federal) armed forces," Dhiaa al-Wakil, spokesman of Maliki's military office, said in a statement.

Maliki's comments came as response to the deployment of thousands of Kurdish regional forces in the disputed area of Tuz- Khurmato, some 200 km north of Baghdad.

The tension between Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan region has been running high after the Iraqi central government established a military command, named Tigris Operations Command, to cover the disputed areas in the provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala and Salahudin.

Earlier, Maliki said that the formation of Tigris Command falls under his constitutional powers and "it does not target any ethnic group or particular province."

For his part, Kurdistan regional president Masoud Barzani ordered the Kurdish security forces "to exercise restraint in facing the provocations, as well as to be at highest alert to confront any aggressive acts."

On Friday, skirmishes between the Iraqi forces and the Peshmerga in the city Tuz-Khurmato led to the killing of an Iraqi soldier and a civilian, along with wounding four of Baghdad soldiers.

Disagreements between Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government have been high for years, as the ethnic Kurds consider the northern oil-rich province of Kirkuk and parts of Nineveh, Diyala and Salahudin provinces as disputed areas and want them to be incorporated into their semi-autonomous Kurdish enclave, a move fiercely opposed by the Arabs and Turkomans.