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Iraqi, Kurd forces in Kirkuk standoff as tensions rise
[Al Jazeera] Thousands of Iraqi soldiers and allied militia are locked in an armed standoff with Kurdish forces in the disputed oil province of Kirkuk amid a sharp row between Baghdad and the autonomous region of Kurdistan. A senior Kurdish official on Saturday said Iraq's central government had given Peshmerga fighters a 2am on Sunday (23:00 GMT on Saturday) deadline to surrender key military positions seized during the fightback against ISIS over the past three years. Al Jazeera could not independently verify the existence of such a deadline. The reports of the deadline came as heavily armed Iraqi troops and members of the Popular Mobilisation Force (PMF) - paramilitary units largely made up of Iran-trained Shia militias - massed around Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... already retaking a string of positions to the south of the city after Kurdish forces withdrew. Posted by: Fred 2017-10-15 |
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