BRITISH ambassador to Iraqi Kurdistan James Thornton has been embroiled in a racism row after demanding that Kurds leave the region following clashes between Peshmerga forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Monday night.

At least one soldier from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)-affiliated Peshmerga was killed and, according to some reports, a guerrilla from the PKK was shot dead in Monday’s incident in the Amedi border region.

Media organisations affiliated to the Barzani-led KDP claimed that PKK fighters opened fire on a Peshmerga checkpoint after refusing to stop.

But this version of events has been disputed by civilian eyewitnesses and the PKK, whose spokesman said that its forces were “ambushed” by the KDP pershmerga and were forced to return fire.

“Three HPG [PKK] guerrillas were heavily wounded,” he said, adding: “The KDP did not allow the locals to help the wounded. As a result one of them fell and became a martyr.”

But Mr Thornton, who faced criticism last week for remaining silent as government forces killed at least nine people, including two children, also came under fire after a statement on Twitter which branded the PKK terrorists and demanded that they leave Kurdistan.

One commenter said: “For the ambassador of the imperialist state, which was the first to use gas against civilians, and that against the Kurds in Iraq is, to put it politely, a bloody arrogant nerve.”

Others said that the comments made by Thornton smacked of colonialism and called for him to apologise to the Kurdish people.

The incident has triggered fears of an imperialist-backed war against the PKK in the region, with the KDP accused of doing the bidding of Turkey and the US.

Thousands of KDP peshmerga forces have been deployed to confront the PKK in their stronghold in the mountainous Qandil region, along with the contact lines in the Gara mountains and Shengal, which the PKK liberated from Isis in 2014.

Some KDP sources insist that the mobilisation in November is aimed at protecting the people in the area who are subjected to daily bombings from Turkish jets.

But these claims are contrary to inflammatory statements made by KDP leader Masoud Barzani last month in which he accused the PKK of “invading” the areas they reside in and demanded that it leaves and returns to Turkey.

His comments have been rejected by all political parties, including the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Gorran Movement and the Kurdistan Communist Party – Iraq who form a united anti-war front.

Memories of the last intra-Kurdish war are still vivid for many. Some 30,000 were killed in the mid-1990s in a conflict between the KDP and PUK.

Mr Barzani enlisted the support of Saddam Hussein whose forces helped drive the PUK out of Erbil into their new stronghold of Slemani.

Thornton had not responded to the Morning Star’s request for comment at the time of going to print.