TURKISH troops have been welcomed into areas of northern Iraq controlled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), it was alleged today, as the deeping political crisis there brought calls for the government to resign.

Video footage circulating on social media apparently showed scores of Turkish soldiers eating alongside KDP supporters, with suggestions that they are to be deployed to quell an anti-government uprising.

Ankara is known to have forces in the region. The Morning Star reported last week that thousands of Turkish soldiers have joined KDP forces in the Qandil mountains region ahead of a threatened offensive against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Hostilities against the PKK have been spearheaded by the KDP, while all other political parties have rejected such a move and joined together in an anti-war front.

Now the focus has shifted to quelling the mass anti-government protests sweeping Iraqi Kurdistan, which began after public-sector workers, including teachers and nurses, went for months without pay.

Twenty-one-year-old Miran Mohamad became the latest protester to be killed  when he was shot dead by KDP forces in the city of Kifiry, bringing the death toll to at least nine with many more injured.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) continues to blame the crisis on Baghdad’s decision to withhold payment of its portion of the federal budget and on a drop in global oil prices.

But protesters are demanding the government’s resignation and warning that Iraqi Kurdistan has a broken political system controlled by just two families: the Barzanis, who occupy most of the key government posts and control the KDP, and the Talabanis, who lead the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

Cracks in the ruling parties are beginning to show, with leading PUK official Arez Abdullah dismissing as “baseless” Prime Minister Masrour Barzani’s recent claim that foreign hands were behind the protests.

PKK officials also rejected accusations that the party was responsible for violent attacks reported by the region's media, which is tightly controlled by the KDP.

The Barzani family controls both Rudaw and Kurdistan 24 media networks, which reflect their party’s interests.

Its reporters have been booed and forced to leave demonstrations to chants of “oil channel, oil channel.”

Media organisations that don’t follow the KDP line, such as NRTV, have been shut down and independent journalists have been arrested, with many disappeared amid claims of torture.

Protests continued across Slemani province today, despite a ban on unauthorised protests and gatherings.

“The PDK and PUK must understand that their massive arsenal and bloodthirsty militias won't scare us. For decades, you've stolen from our poor and humble people,” one protester said.

In a statement, the Kurdistan Communist Party-Iraq called for a political solution to the crisis, instead of a focus on the security situation.

The party called for those who have killed protesters to be charged and put on trial for murder.

One member urged the Star: “Let the world know that militias affiliated with the KDP and PUK are torturing and killing protesters in Kurdistan.”