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Iraqi forces enter central Kirkuk

[ssba]

Iraqi government forces have entered the centre of Kirkuk after taking key installations on the outskirts of the city from Kurdish fighters.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the operation was necessary to “protect the unity of the country, which was in danger of partition” because of a non-binding referendum three weeks ago in which Kurds overwhelmingly voted for independence. The vote also took place in disputed territory outside the boundaries of the autonomous Kurdish region, including Kirkuk and the surrounding oil fields.

Fighters loyal to the Kurdish opposition party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), agreed to make way for the advancing Iraqi forces. However, fighters loyal to the governing Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) tried to resist. Highlighting deep division amongst the Kurds, the Peshmerga General Command, led by President Massoud Barzani of the KDP, accused officials from the PUK of aiding “the plot against the people of Kurdistan”.

Yesterday, US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert issued a statement in which she said that Washington was “very concerned by reports of violence around Kirkuk”. She added: “We support the peaceful exercise of joint administration by the central and regional governments, consistent with the Iraqi constitution, in all disputed areas.”

Reuters reports that a Kurdish official said that Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of foreign operations for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), arrived in the Kurdish region on Saturday for talks on the escalating crisis. The IRGC have been providing training and weapons to Iraqi paramilitary groups backing the Baghdad government.

In the weeks following the vote, the Iraqi government has deployed troops to Kirkuk and implemented a flight ban to and from the Kurdistan Region. They have also imposed a border closure which was enforced by Iran on Sunday at the behest of Baghdad.

Kirkuk is an oil-rich province and multi ethnic city of more than one million people. This includes Kurds, Turkmens and Arabs. Kurdish forces captured the territory in 2014 after Iraqi troops had fled an Islamic State assault, but Baghdad has never accepted Kurdish control there. Iraqi government troops as well as Peshmerga Kurdish forces are both American allies and involved in fighting ISIS.