Baku, Azerbaijan, June 25
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki accused the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Northern Iraq, Massoud Barzani of supporting terrorists, Turkish Anadolu agency reported on June 25.
Maliki said Barzani's statements that currently everything is different in Iraq means that KRG has close ties with the militants of the organization known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
He went on to add that terrorists threaten Iraq and all the forces in the country should fight them.
"The forces that stand for Iraq's integrity, support the U.S. intervention in the country," Maliki said.
Barzani earlier said KRG is ready to hold referendum on independence.
The KRG head said the crisis in Iraq is continuing and Erbil [the capital of KRG] will hold a referendum on independence to protect the Kurdish population.
He also underscored that KRG has always stood for Iraq's integrity, but everything is different in Iraq at the moment.
"The Iraqi army has lost the control over the country, and this is the result of the fact that the Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki has always pursued a unilateral policy with regard to Sunnis and other political forces in the country," Barzani stressed.
He went on to add that the Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki should resign.
On June 10, the militants of the terrorist group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL a.k.a ISIS), supported by the banned Iraqi Ba'ath Party [the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party], seized the administrative center of the Mosul city in the northern Iraqi province of Ninawa, a number of small settlements, as well as part of the Salah al Din Province, including its center - the city of Tikrit.
The ISIL militants took control over the Iraqi town of Tal Afar on June 16 and the city's military airport also came under the control of the ISIL militants on June 22.
It was reported on June 25 that the Sunni groups in Iraq are taking up arms against the ISIL militants.
In particular, the 1920 Revolution Brigades group is armed against the militants. The 1920 Revolution Brigades group actively fought against Al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq in 2007.
The activists of the Iraqi Islamic National Resistance, the Islamic Army of Iraq, Sunni Mujahideen Army are also armed.
The Iraqi prime minister rejected the proposal to create a transitional government with the Sunni insurgents that are not included in the ISIL.
Edited by CN