Iraqi security forces in Kirkuk attacked a protest organized by Kurds to open the road on Saturday night with real bullets, killing at least two young people and wounding 11. Young people were protesting the closure of the road to Hewlêr.

In a written statement, Tevgera Azadi said: "Failure to prevent the situation in Kirkuk from escalating further using peaceful means may lead to the development of an ethnic and sectarian war in the city. Further incidents must be prevented urgently: otherwise things may go out of hand."

The statement continued: "Kirkuk is not the old Kirkuk. It cannot be governed by military methods and dictatorship. The right thing is that Kirkuk should be governed by a democratic system in which the people of Kirkuk can govern themselves with their own will. If further incidents are not urgently prevented, there may be intervention by external powers.

The purpose of the forces behind these actions is political and related to the elections to be held in the coming weeks. These forces want to sacrifice the people of Kirkuk and the brotherhood of people through dirty tricks to achieve their goals.

We call out to all Kirkuk components to address things sensitively. Use peaceful methods to solve problems. As long as we act this way, we can thwart the planned dirty conspiracies."

The trigger for the protests was the planned return of a building to the KDP. The building is the former headquarters of the Barzani party in Kirkuk. Since the Kurdistan Region of Iraq lost around 40 percent of its territory to Baghdad - including Kirkuk - in the wake of the independence referendum carried out by KDP leader Mesûd Barzani in 2017 - the building has been used by the Joint Operations Command of the Iraqi Armed Forces.

Last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani ordered the return of the building to the KDP. However, Hashd al-Shaabi supporters are resisting this with a protest camp in front of the construction and a road blockade.