Baghdad accuses Kurds of reneging on pullback deal

The Kurds have since "gone back on the accord" reached on Sunday on the pullout of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters from the disputed areas, notably a border post with Turkey, he told journalists on Wednesday.

"If they do not stick to it we will do what we want, and if our forces find themselves under fire, we will show them the strength of the law," Abadi said.

Hemin Hawrami, an adviser to Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani who has stepped down, accused the central government of mounting "an escalation against Kurdistan".

"The Iraqi government has no interest in dialogue," he tweeted, warning of "the drums of war in Kurdistan".

On Tuesday, government forces took control of the key border crossing with Turkey after weeks of tensions between Baghdad and Erbil, the capital of autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan, according to Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

If they do not stick to it we will do what we want, and if our forces find themselves under fire, we will show them the strength of the law

The two sides clashed last week as Iraqi forces sought to capture the vital oil export point of Fishkhabur on the border, in the latest flare-up of a crisis sparked by a Kurdish independence vote on September 25.

Iraqi forces have since mid-October recaptured almost all the territories disputed by Baghdad and Erbil, much of it without Kurdish resistance.