BAGHDAD, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- The president of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, said on Tuesday the Kurdish Peshmerga forces will withdraw in Iraq to their lines in 2016 before the battles that liberated Mosul from Islamic State (IS) militants.
In his first statement after the withdrawal of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces from Kirkuk province, Barzani said "due to the withdrawal, the (defensive) line changed to be on the line that was agreed upon between Baghdad and Erbil before the operations to free Mosul on Oct. 17, 2016."
This line "will be the basis of understanding on how to deploy Iraqi forces and troops in the Kurdistan region," Barzani said.
Barzani's statement came a day after the Peshmerga forces withdrew, leaving Kirkuk city and surrounding areas to the Iraqi forces without fighting.
Barzani blamed individuals of a Kurdish rival leading party for the withdrawal, saying "what happened in the battle of Kirkuk was the result of a unilateral decision taken by some individuals from the internal political party in Kurdistan. As a result of this decision, Peshmerga forces withdrew in this manner and the way that everyone saw."
"The rival Kurdish party" was not named. But it becomes well-known by the local media reports that Barzani is referring to the individuals from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which was headed by former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
Some PUK fighters withdrew from the defensive lines in Kirkuk and many other areas outside the city, creating chaos that made other Peshmerga forces to withdraw without fighting.
"We assure the people of Kurdistan and confirm to them that we will exert every effort and will do whatever is necessary in order to preserve our gains and protect the security and stability of the people of Kurdistan," Barzani pledged.
On Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, also the commander-in-chief of Iraqi forces, ordered government forces to enter the oil-rich Kirkuk province in northern Iraq to regain control of the disputed areas claimed between Baghdad and the Kurdish semi-autonomous region.
The Iraqi forces pushed into Kirkuk province, recaptured several towns and many oil installations and military bases outside Kirkuk city before they entered the central part of the city, and took full control of it.
The Iraqi forces deployed in the main streets of the city and seized other government buildings after the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and thousands of militants affiliated with the leading Kurdish parties withdrew from the streets.
The Kurds continued their withdrawal from other disputed areas outside Kirkuk province, such as the city of Tuz-Khurmato in Salahudin province and the cities of Qara-Tappa, Jalawlaa and Jabbara in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, as well as the city of Sinjar and Rabia border crossing with Syria in Nineveh province.
Disagreements between Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government have been running high for years. The ethnic Kurds consider the northern Kirkuk province and parts of Nineveh, Diyala and Salahudin provinces as disputed areas and want them to be incorporated into their region, a move fiercely opposed by the Arabs and Turkomans and by the central government in Baghdad.
Tensions are escalating between Baghdad and the region of Kurdistan after the Kurds held a controversial referendum on the independence of the Kurdistan region and the disputed areas.
The independence of Kurdistan is opposed not only by the Iraqi central government, but also by most other countries as it would threaten the integrity of Iraq and undermine the fight against IS militants.
Iraq's neighboring countries, especially Turkey, Iran and Syria, fear that the Iraqi Kurds' pursuit of independence threatens their territorial integrity, as a large Kurdish population live in those countries.
