Baghdad gives ultimatum on Kirkuk pullback – Kurds

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq: Baghdad has set a pre-dawn Sunday deadline for Kurdish forces to abandon positions in the disputed oil province of Kirkuk they took during the fight back against the Islamic State group, a senior Kurdish official said.

The reported ultimatum comes as thousands of Iraqi troops and allied militia are locked in an armed standoff with Kurdish peshmerga fighters near ethnically divided but historically Kurdish-majority Kirkuk.