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IRBIL, Iraq: Tensions escalated between Iraq’s Kurds and Baghdad on Thursday 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 non-binding referendum the central government slammed as illegal.
Iraqi Kurdish forces closed the two main roads connecting Irbil 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 Wednesday 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 Al-Shaabi (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.
But in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, which is disputed between the Kurds and Baghdad, a local commander told AFP there were no immediate signs of movement by Iraqi forces.
“We have seen no unacceptable movement on the part of Iraqi forces,” Wasta Rasul, the commander of peshmerga forces in southern Kirkuk, told AFP.
He said the peshmerga were in meetings with the US-led coalition that has intervened in Syria and Iraq against the Daesh group and that coalition aircraft “are monitoring the situation carefully.”
The coalition has worked with both peshmerga and Iraqi pro-government forces in the battle to oust IS from areas it seized in Iraq in mid-2014.
Tensions between Baghdad and Irbil have spiralled since last month’s Kurdish independence poll.
Security sources said Thursday that Iraq’s elite Counter Terrorism Service and Rapid Response Force had deployed more forces near Rashad, a village some 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of Kirkuk, near peshmerga positions.
The spokesman for Iraq’s Joint Operations Command refused to confirm or deny any preparations for an offensive against Kurdish forces, pointing instead to operations following last week’s retaking of the town of Hawija from IS.
“What I can say is that our forces in Hawija have accomplished their duty and have started to clear the region of explosives and restore the law in order to allow people to go home,” said the spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahiya Rassul.
Central authorities have severed ties between the Kurdish autonomous region and the outside world by cutting international air links.
Neighbouring Turkey and Iran, which fear that Iraqi Kurdish moves toward independence could fuel demands from their own sizeable Kurdish communities, have also threatened to close their borders to oil exports.
An Iraqi court on Wednesday ordered the arrest of senior Kurdish officials responsible for organizing the referendum, saying they had done so “in contravention of a ruling by the Iraqi supreme court.”
The warrant is likely to prove toothless as Baghdad’s security forces do not operate inside Kurdistan, but it could stop the officials leaving the region.
Iraq has also launched a probe into Kurdistan’s lucrative oil revenues and pledged to expose “corrupt” officials in the region who might have illegally monopolized the market.