The Kurdish outlet Rudaw has published a video allegedly showing a member of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a coalition of mostly Shiite Iran-backed militias, hanging a photo of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei in the Kirkuk, Iraq, governorate’s building.
The PMF and Iraqi military invaded Kirkuk this week, wresting it out of Kurdish control, in retaliation for the decision by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to hold a non-binding referendum asking KRG residents whether they would support the creation of a sovereign Kurdish state. Over 90 percent of voters said “yes” to independence.
According to Rudaw, the video they have published shows a PMF fighter displaying a photo of Khamenei. “We hung our pictures. What more are you waiting for? I am now in Kirkuk. We are now inside the governorate’s building,” Rudaw translates the fighter as stating.
The report claims he then “derides the Kurdish forces and nation calling to drag them into a fight over the city.”
“We reclaimed Kirkuk. Are you not ashamed? Where are the men? Did you not say ‘we are men coming from Erbil and Sulaimani to preserve Kirkuk and Kirkuk is ours’? Where are you?,” he reportedly asks. READ MORE
