@xtaran personally, I would have pushed back to the handling editor and told them these citations weren't going to happen, but this is a fun riposte which (a) probably makes it clear who the reviewers are and (b) hopefully encourages them never to pull this shit again.
@xtaldave@xtaran Presumably the fact that that passage made it to print in its current form is evidence that the editors were pretty disengaged from the whole process, which is probably why they resulted to this tactic.