ARBIL, May 13: The Iraqi Kurdish parliament has passed a resolution asking Turkish peacekeepers to leave northern Iraq where they have been deployed since 1996 to curb internecine fighting, a Kurdish official said on Tuesday.

Turkish peacekeepers entered the enclave under the supervision of Britain and the United States, which brokered a 1996 ceasefire between the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

Kurdish sources have said the United States fears Turkey’s military presence in the north could spark tension with Kurds after the war.

A KDP spokesman who asked that his name not be used said the regional Kurdish parliament on Monday voted unanimously to ask the 800-man Turkish peace force to withdraw.—Reuters