KIRKUK, Iraq: The Iraqi army launched an operation to retake Kurdish-held positions around the disputed oil city of Kirkuk on Friday amid a bitter row with the Kurds over a vote for independence last month.A senior Kurdish official said thousands of heavily armed fighters had been deployed to resist the offensive “at any cost” and called for international intervention with the federal government in Baghdad to prevent the confrontation worsening.
The Iraqi army and the Kurdish peshmerga have been key allies of the US-led coalition in its fight against the Daesh group and the threat of armed clashes between them poses a major challenge for Western governments.