A spokesman for Iraqi Kurdish president Massud Barzani said Thursday that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had "become hysterical" and should step down.

A spokesman for Iraqi Kurdish president Massud Barzani said Thursday that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had "become hysterical" and should step down.

The Kurdish remarks came after the Iraqi premier accused the autonomous region of harboring Takfiri militants who have been for weeks waging insurgency against Baghdad.

Maliki "has become hysterical and has lost his balance," said the statement, published on the Kurdish regional presidency website in English.

Addressing the premier, it continued: "You must apologize to the Iraqi people and step down. You have destroyed the country and someone who has destroyed the country cannot save the country from crises."

The virulent statement came after Maliki charged that the Kurdish regional capital Arbil was harboring militants fighting his government, including from the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL) group which declared a “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria last month.

"We cannot be silent over a movement that exploited the circumstances and expanded," Maliki said Wednesday, infuriated by a Kurdish announcement that plans for an independence referendum were to speed up.

Kurdish troops moved into a swathe of disputed areas after federal security forces withdrew as Takfiri militants backed by former Baathists swept through northern Iraq last month.