Western governments must help put out the “fire” of the Kurdistan crisis before the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant regroups, a senior Kurdish leader has warned.

Bafel Talabani, a former commander of Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga counter-terrorism forces and son of the late Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, said that celebrating the defeat of the terror group was “simplistic” and called on Britain to negotiate an end to a months-long confrontation between Iraqi and Kurdish forces previously allied in the fight against the terror group.

“Daesh is not gone. That issue is not defeated," Mr Talabani said, using the Arabic acronym for the group. "All you will see is asymmetrical warfare increase - they will stir up racial hatreds and terrorism will increase.”