Iraqi leader of al- Wataniya Coalition, Ayad Allawi, has condemned the assassination of a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) member in the disputed Kurdish province of Kirkuk, calling for the normalization of security in the area.
Jabbar Rashid, the head of a local KDP office in Musallad district of Kirkuk, was assassinated overnight on Tuesday by a couple of gunmen in Runaki neighborhood in central Kirkuk, while the perpetrators escaped the scene immediately.
Allawi, who also served as Iraqi Prime Minister in the previous years, pointed out that they, several times before, have warned of the deteriorated security situation in Kirkuk and other disputed territories, calling for a national meeting on the issue before things get worse.
The situation in the disputed Kurdish areas has started to deteriorate after the Iraqi forces and pro-Iranian Hashd al-Shaabi militias entered the territories in late 2017 and forced the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters to withdraw from the areas.