Kurds on high alert as Iraqi forces mass near Kirkuk
The Kurdish Regional Government has deployed thousands of troops around the disputed oil city of Kirkuk for fear of an attack by Iraqi government army and militia, a senior official said.
"Thousands of heavily armed peshmerga units are now completely in their positions around Kirkuk," a top aide to Kurdistan regional president Masoud Barzani posted on social media on Friday.
"Their order is to defend at any cost," Hemin Hawrami wrote on Twitter.
According to the AP news agency, as many as 6,000 Kurdish troops have been deployed in the Kirkuk area.
The alert came after the Kurdish authorities accused the Iraqi government of massing forces in readiness for a reported offensive to seize Kurdish-held oil fields around Kirkuk, as tensions soar after a vote for independence last month.
They accused the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) - paramilitary units dominated by Iran-trained Shia militia - of massing fighters in two mainly Shia Turkmen areas south of Kirkuk in a bid to provoke a confrontation.
Sources in Kirkuk also confirmed to Al Jazeera the movement of Iraqi forces on two fronts in Kirkuk, in the south and west of the city.
In some areas, the Iraqi forces have moved two to three kilometres from Kurdish peshmerga positions, Al Jazeera's Charles Stratford reported from Erbil.
"Certainly the KRG government is very worried," he said. "Some Kurds describe Kirkuk as their Jerusalem, and they are saying that they are not going to give up this city."
Source: Al Jazeera