IRAQI Kurdish forces pulled back from the edge of oil-rich Kirkuk yesterday, accusing Iraq’s army of launching an operation to retake the disputed city.

Peshmerga Lieutenant General Wasta Rasul said his forces evacuated positions south-west of Kirkuk city while an officer in the Iraqi army said federal forces had moved into positions left by the Kurdish forces in the same area, near the village of Bashir.

The troop movements follow accusations by the Kurdistan Regional Government that Iraq has commenced operations to retake areas of Kirkuk and neighbouring Mosul province which are under the control of the peshmerga.

The Kurdistan Regional Security Council said on Wednesday that it was “receiving dangerous messages” that Iraqi forces were “preparing major attack in south/west Kirkuk and north Mosul on Kurdistan.”

It also accused the government-backed PMU militias of deploying fighters in two mainly Shi’ite Turkmen areas south of Kirkuk in a bid to provoke a confrontation.

However the Iraqi government was quick to dispute the claims. “We deny any planning or thinking of an attack in Kirkuk,” a government spokesman said.

Kirkuk has been under Kurdish control since 2014 when it was seized from Isis militants.

Tensions escalated in the region two weeks ago after Kurdish voters overwhelmingly backed independence in a referendum which the Iraqi government deems illegal.

The poll took place in the autonomous Kurdish region provinces and also in surrounding areas including Kirkuk, which is the location of northern Iraq’s biggest oil fields.

For this reason Kirkuk is bitterly disputed between the Kurds and Baghdad, which continues to reject their calls for the city to be incorporated into the autonomous region.

On Thursday night PMU spokesman Karim al-Nouri said that the Kurdish Regional Government was “more dangerous” than Isis.

He accused its president Masoud Barzani of “occupying” the predominantly Kurdish city and “stealing the oil wells.”

“Anyone occupying Iraqi land must be thrown out. We do not discriminate between Isis and anyone else in this manner,” he said.