(reuters) -- The deployment was meant "as a goodwill gesture and trust-building exercise that ensures a limited and temporary arrangement until an agreement is reached in accordance with the Iraqi Constitution", said a statement from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)'s defence department. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Friday declared a pause in an offensive that began on Oct. 16 to take over areas claimed both by his government and the KRG as well as international border crossings with the Kurdistan region.

Abadi ordered economic and military retaliation against the KRG after Iraqi Kurds voted for independence in September in a referendum that Baghdad declared illegal.

(File Photo: Sputnik/ Hikmet Durgun)