3:30 p.m.
KIFRI, Kurdistan Region — Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi army met and reached an agreement following a tense day in Kifri, a Kurdish official told Rudaw, while explaining both sides agreed for the Iraqi army to withdraw to its previous positions and to confront any ISIS movements in the region jointly.
Farhad Rafaat, the head of Crime Prevention Department in Khanaqin told Rudaw that “in the meeting where Mahmood Sangawi, the commander of the Garmaser front and the Iraqi army officials attended, they agreed that these areas were Kurdistani inhabited by Kurds for a long time and that the Peshmerga will protect them.
"But for any confrontation and attacks against ISIS, they are ready to support the Iraqi forces.”
He said the Iraqi forces pulled out.
Rafaat recounted that he was informed last night by the Iraqi Council of Ministries that that the Iraqi army intends to return to the borderlines where former Baathist's pre-2003 lines.
He said the areas in question consist of a town and 38 villages.
The region bloc has been under KRG and its Peshmerga control since 1991.
Earlier this morning the Iraqi army’s 4th division advanced in Kulajo town areas.
The advancing force announced that they had been ordered by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to return to the borderlines where the Baathist regime was present in and had been drawn by the UNSC in 1991.
12:46 p.m.
Kurdish Peshmerga warn of Iraqi forces' movements in Kifri district
Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi army are in standoff near the district of Kifri on Tuesday.
A Rudaw reporter there said that Iraqi forces were beginning movements on Tuesday in order to advance nearby the town of Kolajo in Kifri district.
A Peshmerga commander told Rudaw that they would not allow the army to advance.
"If they advance even one step, we will turn the area into a firestorm for them," Mahmood Sangawi, a local Peshmerga commander, told Rudaw.
Kifri town is 188 kilometers southeast of Erbil and near Tuz Khurmatu and Kalar.
“We are taking full responsibility for protecting this area so that not only ISIS, nor any other group can return,” Sangawi said. “We do not allow any other force to come to the region.”
He believes Iraq's excuse for planning the attack was “the existence of ISIS” in the region.
He added if the army looks for “terrorists” they could be found in the Hamrin Mountainous, in Wadi Salab and Sharaban. "Let them look after them there."
As part of the Garmiyan bloc, Kifri has been under KRG control since 1991.
In the wake of the deterioration of Erbil-Baghdad relations following October 16 events which saw massive withdrawal of Peshmerga forces and the fall of Kirkuk to Baghdad, the Peshmerga and Iraqi forces engaged in several armed clashes in the days after in areas near Erbil province.
The Iraqi army also gained much of territories in the disputed territories, notably Shingal and Makhmour.
The Peshmerga commander said they won't allow “the Arabization” of the region, claiming some people among the Iraqi army want to cause local “sedition.”
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