100,000 Kurds flee Kirkuk to KRG-controlled areas in Iraq, officials say

About 100,000 Kurds have fled Kirkuk, fearing unrest, since Monday's takeover of the region by Iraqi forces, officials from the semi-autonomous KRG said. 

Nawzad Hadi, governor of KRG's declared capital Erbil, told reporters that around 18,000 families from Kirkuk and the town of Tuz Khurmato to the southeast had taken refuge in Erbil and Sulaimaniya, inside KRG-controlled territory. 

A Hadi aide told Reuters the total number of displaced people was about 100,000.

Baghdad's forces swept into the multi-ethnic city of more than 1 million people, hub of a major oil-producing area, largely unopposed on Monday after most Kurdish Peshmerga forces withdrew without presenting a fight.

Iraqi forces also took back control of Kirkuk oilfields, effectively halving the amount of output under the direct control of the semi-autonomous KRG in a serious blow to the Kurds' independence quest.

Baghdad's recapture of Kirkuk, situated just outside the KRG's official boundaries on disputed land claimed by Kurds, ethnic Turkmen and Arabs, put the city's Kurds in fear of attack by Iran-backed Hashd al Shaabi, known as Popular Mobilisation Forces, assisting regime forces' operations in the region.

Court orders arrest of KRG's vice president

Iraq's Supreme Justice Council ordered the arrest of KRG's Vice President Kosrat Rasul for allegedly saying Iraqi troops were "occupying forces" in Kirkuk.