The Kurdish response came a day after a government-linked human rights organisation said HRW had defamed the region by being selective and subjective in its report on protests against corruption and nepotism.

"We will not deny that a few individuals from KRG (Kurdistan regional government) security forces may have committed violations and might have subjected some protesters to ill treatment," Falah Mustafa Bakir, head of the Kurdish department of foreign relations, said in a letter addressed to HRW.

"We can assure you, however, that these incidents have occurred despite KRG's clear directives for strict adherence to the law and the rights of the protesters."

Bakir said Kurdish authorities "take issue with some of the assertions in your statement".

He continued: "It is... important to recognise that the protests in the governorate of Sulaimaniyah were not entirely peaceful. Many of the protest leaders incited violence, some even called for jihad."

"Many of the demonstrators took part in violent actions that caused extensive damage to public and private property as well as hundreds of injuries and even the deaths of two security personnel."

He noted, however, that the government "acknowledges significant shortcoming and deficiencies in its performance".

Kurdistan, made up of three provinces in Iraq's north, has this year been the site of regular protests against corruption and nepotism within the government, which has been dominated by two parties for decades.

HRW on May 24 called on Kurdish authorities to cease what the New York-based rights group said was intimidation of journalists, warning of a "growing assault on the freedom of journalists to work in Iraqi Kurdistan."

"Regional officials should stop repressing journalists through libel suits, beatings, detentions, and death threats," HRW said after similar remarks from Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

The Kurdish Human Rights Foundation, formerly the region's human rights ministry, responded by saying the HRW report was "not lacking in defamation".

"We hope that Human Rights Watch will be more neutral and objective in dealing with this issue in Kurdistan," the group said. "HRW must check the statements of others who have records of participation with terrorist organisations.

"We say that they were unfair in their report, and adopted a selective method in the preparation of the report," it added.