A group of Kurds angered over Iraq's takeover of Kirkuk staged a demonstration outside the United States' mission in Erbil Sunday.

“Trump lied to the Kurdish people, America lied to the Kurdish people,” the crowd chanted, according to a report by CNN. The anger comes as tens of thousands of Kurds have fled Kirkuk and those who have stayed fear reprisals from Iraqi officials after Iraq retook the city in armed clashes.

Kurds were also protesting outside the UN Office in Erbile over the weekend. Those protesters carried some Israeli themed imagery including one who carrying a frame showing the portraits of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Israeli Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu and Iraqi Kurdistan President Massud Barzani, with a quote attributed to the lattermost reading in Kurdish: "I want to say before my God and before my people that I am not the person who disappoints them." Other protesters carried Israeli flags in honor of Israel's support for an independent Kurdistan.

Open gallery view A picture taken on October 21, 2017 shows a man holding the Israeli flag as others raise the flag of Iraqi Kurdistan during a demonstration outside the UN Office in Erbil Credit: AFP PHOTO / SAFIN HAMED

Russia announced Monday it respects the desire of Iraqi Kurdistan to seek to assert its identity but this must be done in dialogue with the Iraqi government, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at talks with his Iraqi government counterpart.

Lavrov said Russia would continue its economic ties with Iraqi Kurdistan, as it does with other constituent parts of Iraq. He said Russia was not closing its consulate in Erbil, the main city in Iraqi Kurdistan, but said the mission was subordinate to the Russian embassy in Baghdad.