BAGHDAD, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- An Iraqi court on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for the vice president of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) following his statement that described the Iraqi forces as "occupation forces."
"The Court of Inquiry for Risafa (eastern Baghdad) issued an arrest warrant for Kosrat Rasoul after his latest comments which he considered the army and federal police forces in Kirkuk as occupation forces," Abdul Sattar al-Biraqdar, spokesman for Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council, said in a statement.
"The court considered Rasoul's statements insult and incitement against the armed forces, and the arrest warrant was issued in accordance with Article 226 of the Iraqi Penal Code," Biraqdar said.
Rasoul, who is also deputy leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), issued a strongly worded statement on Wednesday which denounced those individuals among the PUK who ordered the withdrawal of the Peshmerga forces in Kirkuk, which eventually led to the city's capture by Iraqi forces without fighting.
"What really deepened the wound is some individuals who deviated from the PUK's doctrine without returning to our party's leadership and became the occupiers' (Iraqi forces) assistants to obtain some personal and casual gains," Rasoul said in his statement.
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 ethnically-mixed disputed areas.
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 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 large Kurdish populations live in those countries.
