Iraq sweeps up more territories from Kurds after taking Kirkuk

Iraqi forces consolidated control over a growing section of northern Iraq Tuesday, pushing Kurdish forces out of towns and villages amid growing fears that tensions will turn violent and undermine the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State.

U.S. officials have urged both factions to avoid violence. “We call on all actors in the region to focus on this common threat and avoid stoking tensions among the Iraqi people,” the Pentagon said in a statement.

Col. Ryan Dillon, a U.S. military spokesman, said Tuesday the process has been largely peaceful, with one exception, when a miscommunication led to a violent clash south of Kirkuk early Monday. The number of troops killed in the clash range from three to 11.

U.S. advisers are not accompanying any of the Kurdish or Iraqi units involved in the troop movements as Iraqi forces assume control of the disputed areas.

The Kurds and Iraq’s armed forces are critical U.S. allies in the war against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. Both have been trained and armed by the U.S.-led coalition.

Tensions between the two sides were intensified when the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq held a referendum on independence last month, which passed overwhelmingly. The U.S. opposed holding the vote, saying it would detract from fighting ISIS.

The governments of Iraq and Turkey, U.S. allies in the battle against ISIS, fear the Kurds will carve a new state out of territory in their countries.   

On Monday, Iraqi forces pushed into Kirkuk as Kurdish forces withdrew. The multi-ethnic city of some 1 million Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen and Christians is in the heart of a major oil-producing region.

Kirkuk and other areas outside the semi-autonomous Kurdish region had been controlled by Kurdish forces, called the Peshmerga, since 2014 when ISIS swept into Iraq and Iraq’s armed forces collapsed.

At the time, the Kurdish forces remained intact and were able to hold the line on ISIS while Iraq’s armed forces were rebuilt with U.S. weapons and training.

The Iraqi central government in Baghdad has never been comfortable with Kurdish control in the areas outside their traditional region. Over the last three years, Baghdad has demanded the Kurds return Kirkuk to federal control.

ISIS has declined as a threat in Iraq as Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, was retaken from the militant group this year.

Earlier this month, more than 1,000 militants surrendered as Hawija, another major ISIS enclave in Iraq, was recaptured by Iraqi forces.

On Tuesday, Kurdish forces withdrew from Sinjar as well as three towns on the border with Iran, allowing Iraqi government forces and state-sanctioned militias to assume control, according to the Associated Press.