Iraqi Kurds send troops to block road to disputed Kirkuk

The official from the Peshmerga Affairs Ministry of the Iraqi Kurdish region said the troops will not enter Kirkuk, whose control is a matter of dispute between the Kurdish administration and the Baghdad government, but that they will not allow the Iraqi army to enter the city either. The peshmerga troops were dispatched to the area on Saturday afternoon, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Anatolia news agency.

The Iraqi army troops, on the other hand, are deployed some 30 kilometers from Kirkuk, Anatolia also said.

The latest military buildup this year illustrates how far relations between Baghdad's central government, led by Shiite Muslim Arabs, and ethnic Kurds have deteriorated, testing Iraq's federal cohesion nearly a year after US troops left.

Baghdad and Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region earlier this week began sending troops to an area over which they both claim jurisdiction, raising tensions in a long-running feud over land and oil rights.

Speaking to Reuters, Anwar Haji Osman, the deputy minister for Peshmerga affairs, said on Saturday that more Kurdish troops and tanks were mobilized and headed towards the disputed areas. He said that they would hold their positions unless Iraqi forces made a move. "If they overstep the line, we will strike them," he said.

The Iraqi army and Kurdish troops have previously come close to confrontation only to pull back at the last moment, flexing their muscles but lacking any real appetite for a fight.

Iraq's speaker of parliament, who visited Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani on Friday, said "significant progress" had been made towards defusing the standoff and that a meeting between military leaders from both sides would be held on Monday in the Defense Ministry in Baghdad.

Tension has been mounting over the formation of a new command center for Iraqi forces to operate in the disputed areas. Kurds say the Dijla Operations Command is a threat to them and an attempt by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to seize control over the oil rich territories along the internal border that demarcates the Kurdish region from the rest of Iraq. Maliki says the Dijla Operations Command is necessary to keep order in one of the most volatile parts of the country.

Barzani on Saturday turned down an invitation from Shiite cleric and lawmaker Moqtada al-Sadr to meet with Maliki to discuss the situation. In a statement posted on the Kurdish regional government's website, Barzani's spokesman said he had refused because the matter was not personal, but rather a result of Maliki's "constant non-commitment to the constitution."

The latest flare-up began one week ago when Iraqi troops went after a fuel smuggler who had taken refuge in the office of a Kurdish political party in Tuz Khurmato, 170 kilometers north of the capital, sparking a clash with Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in which one passerby was killed.

Turkey blames Maliki for tension

Maliki has sparred more aggressively with Barzani since the withdrawal last year of US troops, which had served as a buffer between the federal Baghdad government and the Kurdish region.

In remarks on Sunday, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said the Turkish government was in talks with Barzani to ease tensions. Ankara, which has built close ties with the Kurdish administration, put the blame for the recent tensions with the Kurds on the Maliki government and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned Maliki's policies could lead to a sectarian war in Iraq, angering Maliki.

Davutoğlu said Erdoğan's warnings were “well intentioned” and added that Maliki is at odds with almost every political actor in Iraq as a result of his policies.

He said Maliki interprets every well-intentioned initiative by Turkey as "interference" in Iraq's internal affairs and added that his government was ready to "assess every proposal and make positive contributions" to efforts to "reduce tensions and maintain Iraq's unity and territorial integrity."

Lashing out at Erdoğan, Maliki said last week that the Turkish prime minister "should focus on internal issues, particularly [Turkey's] specter of sectarian and ethnic conflict, and should seek ways for a solution."

Maliki said that he suggests Erdoğan solve the problems of Turkey's minorities, noting that Erdoğan should avoid plunging Turkey into the problems of regional countries.