Kurdish forces deploy near Iraq's disputed Kirkuk

KIRKUK - Agence France-Presse

Iraqi soldiers stand near their vehicle during their withdrawal from the neighbourghood of the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on April 27, 2013. Kurdish security forces, aka the Peshmerga, deployed near Kirkuk, a Kurdish official said, a move allegedly aimed at combating militants in the area whereas the Iraqi army ascribed different motives to the deployment. AFP photo

Kurdish security forces deployed near the disputed northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, a Kurdish official said April 27, a move allegedly aimed at combating militants in the area.

In the past week, a wave of violence has killed more than 200 people, including 40 in Kirkuk. "After consultations with the governor of Kirkuk, there has been a decision for peshmerga (security) forces to fill the vacuums in general, and especially around the city of Kirkuk," Jabbar Yawar, secretary general of Iraqi Kurdistan's peshmerga ministry, said in a statement.

"The intelligence service of the peshmerga has information that terrorist groups have plans to launch terrorist attacks in these regions," Yawar said. "Our only goal is to preserve the life of citizens." But the Iraqi army ascribed different motives to the deployment.

"After the latest movements of the peshmerga forces, the army is on alert," a high-ranking army officer told AFP. "The army sees the move of the peshmerga as a [political] maneuver and not to fill any vacuum." 

Kurdish move 'dangerous': Army

Meanwhile, a top Iraqi general said that the new deployments of Kurdish forces in Kirkuk are a "dangerous development" and an attempt to reach its oilfields.

"They want to reach (Kirkuk's) oil wells and fields," Staff General Ali Ghaidan Majeed, the commander of Iraqi ground forces, told AFP, adding that the move breached an agreement that Kurdish peshmerga forces and Iraqi soldiers would man joint checkpoints.

"Our only goal is to preserve the life of citizens." Another high-ranking Iraqi army officer told AFP that "after the latest movements of the peshmerga forces, the army is on alert." "The army sees the move of the peshmerga as a (political) manoeuvre and not to fill any vacuum," the officer said.

Kirkuk province and its eponymous capital, home to Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen, fall within the territory the autonomous Kurdistan region wants to incorporate over strong objections from the federal government in Baghdad.

Diplomats and officials say the territorial dispute between Baghdad and Kurdistan - a three-province region with its own government, security forces, borders and flag but which still receives a portion of the federal budget - is a major threat to Iraq's long-term stability.