Politics
22:33, 27-Oct-2017
Iraqi forces, Kurdish Peshmerga 'agree' on cease-fire
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Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters reached an agreement on Friday to stop fighting in northern Iraq, the media office of the US-led coalition said.
"What we know is that there is a cease-fire," Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesperson for the international coalition, told Rudaw television.
Dillon said the coalition wants the cease-fire to be extended so that the two sides will "refocus" on the fight against ISIL in Iraq, the Kurdish channel said.
"We certainly want that (cease-fire) to extend, to not be just a cease-fire for a short period of time, but that it extends to no more fighting," he said.
Iraqi security forces on Tuesday seized the disputed city of Sinjar in the Kurdish region without fighting. /Xinhua Photo
Iraqi security forces on Tuesday seized the disputed city of Sinjar in the Kurdish region without fighting. /Xinhua Photo
The coalition is "encouraging dialogue, through trying to get the right people from both Peshmerga and the Iraqi security forces," Dillon added. "So that something could be worked out diplomatically."
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered government forces to enter the oil-rich Kirkuk province to regain control of the ethnically-mixed disputed areas on October 16 in retaliation for a September 25 referendum on independence organized by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq.
The Kirkuk city fell to Iraqi forces without much resistance on October 16 but the Peshmerga began to fight back forcefully as they withdrew closer to the core KRG territory.
The most violent clashes happened in the northwestern corner where Peshmerga are defending land crossings to Turkey and Syria and an oil hub that controls KRG crude exports.
Source(s): Reuters
,Xinhua News Agency