Iraqi troops in armed standoff with Kurdish forces in Kirkuk

Baghdad: Fighting broke out between Iraqi Turkmen fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units (Hashd al-Sha'abi) and Kurdish forces in the country's central province of Salahuddin as tensions remain high between Kurdish and Turkmen political parties in the wake of last month's independence referendum in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

The fighting, that lasted several hours but caused no damage, broke out at a time when thousands of Iraqi troops were locked in an armed standoff with Kurdish Peshmarga forces in the disputed oil-rich province of Kirkuk.

The Kurds said on Saturday that Baghdad had set a deadline for their forces to surrender positions they took during the fightback against IS militants over the past three years.

The deadline, originally set for 2:00 am Sunday was extended by 24 hours during a meeting overnight, a Kurdish official said early Sunday, asking not to be named.

On Saturday, armoured vehicles bearing the Iraqi national flag were posted on the bank of a river on the southern outskirts of the city of Kirkuk, reports said.

On the opposite bank, Kurdish peshmerga fighters were visible behind an earthen embankment topped with concrete blocks and the red, white, green and yellow colours of the Kurdish flag.

"Our forces are not moving and are now waiting for orders from the general staff," an Iraqi army officer said.

Just before midnight in Baghdad Iraqi forces used loudhailers to call on the peshmerga fighters to withdraw.

Uncompromising message

The standoff came as Iraqi President Fuad Masum, who is himself a Kurd, held crisis talks in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah.

Kirkuk's governor, a Kurd sacked by Baghdad but who refuses to quit his post, visited the peshmerga near the Bay Hassan and Havana oilfields with an uncompromising message for the Iraqi forces. 

"The demands of the Hashed al-Shaabi to evacuate Kirkuk and hand over control of the territory, its inhabitants and natural resources are totally unacceptable," Najm Eddine Karim told journalists at the scene.

He said the Kurds were in contact with the US-led international coalition, which could observe the situation on the ground with its military overflights.

'At any cost'

Polling was held not only in the three provinces of the autonomous Kurdish region but also in adjacent Kurdish-held areas, including Kirkuk, that is claimed by both Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said there can be no further discussion of the Kurds' long-standing demands to incorporate Kirkuk and other historically Kurdish-majority areas in their autonomous region until the independence vote is annulled.

He insisted on Thursday that he was "not going... to make war on our Kurdish citizens".

But thousands of heavily armed troops and members of the Hashed al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation forces, which are backed by Iran -- have massed around Kirkuk.

They have already retaken a string of positions to the south of the city after Kurdish forces withdrew.

Security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the skirmishes between fighters from Hashd al-Sha'abi -- and members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan took place in the ethnically-mixed city of Tuz Khurmatu, located some 88 kilometers south of Kirkuk, in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The sources added that a dozen Kurdish families were displaced from the predominantly Turkmen district of Askari to Kurdish neighborhoods of the city.

The exchange of mainly automatic gunfire reportedly left no casualties.

The referendum on secession of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region was held on September 25 despite strong opposition from the central government in Baghdad, the international community, and Iraq's neighboring countries, especially Turkey and Iran.

Following the vote, Baghdad imposed a ban on direct international flights to the autonomous Kurdish region and called for a halt to its independent crude oil sales.

On Thursday, an Iraqi government spokesman said Baghdad had a series of conditions that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) needed to meet before any talks on the resolution of the referendum crisis could start.

"The KRG must first commit to Iraq's unity. The local authorities in the [Kurdistan] region ... must accept the sovereign authority of the federal government on ... oil exports, [as well as] security and border protection, including land and air entry points," the unnamed Iraqi official added.

The senior Iraqi official further said, "These are the basis for any dialogue requested by the local government of the region."

The remarks came in response to an offer for dialogue made earlier by Kurdish authorities.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has already demanded the annulment of the referendum results.

During a recent press conference in Paris, Abadi said his government did not seek confrontation with Iraqi Kurds, but reiterated Baghdad's position that the referendum was illegal and that problems should be solved within the framework of Iraq's constitution.