Shafaq News/ Local officials in Saladin were banned from talking to media without obtaining the approval of the governorate administration after a fallout with the administration of neighboring Kirkuk.

Shafaq News Agency tried to reach out to a group of officeholders in Saladin, but "they were banned from making statements for unknown reasons."

"A statement by a local official to Shafaq News Agency resulted in friction between Saladin and Kirkuk," a source revealed later.

The media official of the Saladin governorate, Riyadh al-Jaber, told Shafaq News Agency, "it is a purely administrative issue to avoid problems or unwanted adverse effects."

Jaber said that the local officials are not banned from making statements, "rather, they have to obtain approval from the administration."

Saladin's media official did not reveal the direct motive of this decision.

The head of the Journalists Syndicate office in Saladin, Shaker al-Jubouri, did not offer any clarifications on the issue.

"We have not received an official decision about banning statements to journalists," he said, stressing that he is in touch with the media department and the administration of the governorate.

Jaber did not pick up later phone calls from Shafaq News Agency.

Earlier this month, the commissioner of Saladin's Tuz Khurmato, Hasan Zein al-Abidin, denounced the measures taken by Kirkuk's directorate of irrigation as "mass sanctions" against 200 thousand people in the district after it decided to cut the water supply.

Zein al-Abidin told Shafaq News Agency back then that the Irrigation Project of Kirkuk is the only source of potable water in Tuz Khurmato.

The local official said that the administration of the water project did not respond to the appeals of more than 200 thousand people in Tuz Khurmato who had been deprived of water for six days.