BAGHDAD, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Iraq said Sunday that the deployment of Turkish outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the ethnically-mixed city of Kirkuk is "war declaration" on the Iraqi people.
A statement by the Iraqi Ministerial Council of National Security, headed by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, warned that the deployment of such militias "is a dangerous escalation that cannot be tolerated and represents a declaration of war against the rest of the Iraqis and regular federal forces."
The security council also warned of the "serious escalation and provocation carried out by the Kurdish forces outside the borders of the Kurdish region, which wants to drag the country into internal strife in order to achieve its goal of dismantling Iraq and the (Middle East) region in order to establish a state on the basis of ethnicity," according to the statement.
The independence of Kurdistan is opposed not only by the Iraqi central government, but also by most other countries, because it would threaten the integrity of Iraq and undermine the fight against Islamic State militants.
Iraq's neighboring countries, especially Turkey, Iran and Syria, fear that the Iraqi Kurdish independence move would threaten their territorial integrity, as large population of Kurds live in those countries.
The United States repeatedly warned the Kurds to postpone the referendum, saying such move could derail or confuse the war against IS. Enditem
