Iraqi Kurd officials deny PKK forces are among its peshmerga fighters in the disputed oil province of Kirkuk, although they could include sympathizers of Turkey’s outlawed Kurdish group.
“There are no PKK forces in Kirkuk, but there are some volunteers who sympathize with the PKK,” the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, says General Jabar Yawer, head of the peshmerga ministry.
There have also been “other volunteers, independents, and Islamists fighting Daesh since 2014,” he adds, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.
“They support the peshmerga. They are irregular forces,” Yawer says.
The allegations came just hours before the expiry of a deadline for peshmerga fighters to withdraw from areas they took in Kirkuk in 2014 during a fightback against IS.
— AFP
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