ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Kurdistan Region and Iraqi officials including President Nechirvan Barzani have condemned Saturday's attack on the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) office in Baghdad by protesters affiliated to the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi).
President Barzani called the violence "an attack on coexistence", and called on the Iraqi government to launch a thorough investigation.
“We condemn this attack and consider it an act of sabotage. Attacking the office of a political party that was one of the main forces that caused the ending of dictatorship in Iraq means attacking on the joint struggle of Kurds and Iraqi revolutionary forces to end oppression and dictatorship,” Barzani said in a statement on Saturday.
“It is also an attack on coexistence as well as social and political peace. This does not match up with the bases of constitution, democracy and human rights,” he warned.
Barzani invoked the victory of the Peshmerga, Hashd al-Shaabi and Iraqi armed forces against the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2017 as a period of recent unity that should be carried into the future.
“I hope that this joint effort will lead to more political cooperation to get all Iraqi people out of the current terrible situation."
He called on the Iraqi government to launch an investigation and “take serious and swift legal action, as well as bring the saboteurs to face law.”
Supporters of the PMF protested on Saturday morning in front of the offices of the KDP, the Kurdistan Region’s ruling party, following critical comments by senior KDP official Hoshyar Zebari about the militia network.
Protesters set the building alight, burned the flag of the Kurdistan Region, and stepped on photographs of KDP leader Masoud Barzani.
In his statement on the attack, President of Iraq Barham Salih also highlighted the "cooperation and unity" between the Peshmerga, federal Iraqi forces and the PMF that brought the defeat of ISIS.
"These sacrifices cannot be muddled with trivial things, irritation, and acts of sabotage, as those people today showed with the burning of the flag of Kurdistan, which is a symbol and has a history for the Iraqis, and is part of the Iraqi constitution," a statement from the Iraqi Presidency read.
Kurdistan Parliament's deputy speaker Hemin Hawrami also condemned the attack and called on the Iraqi government to rein in rogue Hashd al-Shaabi elements that are "a threat for coexistence & living in peace.”
Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region Qubad Talabani said that Saturday's attack ought to jolt Kurds into unity.
“This puts us as Kurds before a great responsibility to be united in order to face threats against us. Today, our people need unity and tranquility more than ever,” he said in a statement.
Lahur Talabany, co-chair of the Kurdistan Region’s ruling Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) called desecration of the Kurdistan Region flag a "red line".
“The burning of political party headquarters is not the correct way to express disagreements,” Talabany added.
Updated at 7:52 pm
