Alwaght- Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) forces have moved back their defense lines around the disputed oil-rich Kirkuk, as Baghdad is mounting pressures on the semiautonomous region to renounce its controversial independence referendum.
Reuters cited Kurdish security sources as saying that the Peshmerga (KRG militia forces) had shifted their defense lines by 3 km (1.9 miles) to 10 km south of Kirkuk to reduce the risk of clashes with Iraqi forces, which then moved into some of the vacated positions without incident.
KRG, defying all domestic and international oppositions, held a breakaway vote on 25 sptember, making Iraqi central government to take a series of steps to isolate northern Iraqi region, including banning international flights from going there.
Iraq has also increased military presence in south of "disputed area" of Kirkuk, where lies outside KRG territory but the region's leader, using power vacuum created by ISIS invasion, deployed Peshmerga militias there in 2014.
Disputed regions label covers some regions like the oil-rich Kirkuk and some parts of Diyala and Salaheddin provinces on which the Iraqi government and Kurds struggle for control and demographic structure determination.
The area from which the Peshmerga withdrew is populated mainly by Shiite Muslim Turkmen, many of whom are loyal to the Shiite led-government in Baghdad.
An Iraqi military spokesman said military movements near Kirkuk aimed only to “inspect and secure” the nearby region of Hawija recaptured from ISIS terrorist group on 5 October.
