Two of his soldiers Iraq and two members of the Kurdish militant organization “Peshmerga“, were killed on Sunday (10/22) when the two sides engaged in fighting in a mountainous area in the north, according to Reuters news agency sources in the Iraqi and Kurdish security forces.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, acting as head of the country’s armed forces, ordered the formation of a commission to investigate the incident, according to his spokesman.
Fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) had left positions near the Mahmour community yesterday Saturday and handed them over to the Iraqi armybut Peshmerga of the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), the faction in power in Iraqi Kurdistan, tried to bring them under their control, resulting in fighting.
Earlier, sources close to the Peshmerga said that two Iraqi soldiers and a Kurdish fighter were killed, but later clarified that a lieutenant colonel of the Kurdish forces succumbed to his injuries.
Another six Iraqi soldiers and five Kurdish fighters were wounded. Two of the Iraqi soldiers were hospitalized in critical condition, according to sources close to the health services.
The hostilities lasted for about two hours, before officers from both sides tried to de-escalate the tension.h, according to sources close to the parties.
The Iraqi army remains in control of the positions over which the fighting took place, three sources in the armed forces told Reuters.
However, both sides are sending reinforcements to the region, they added, describing the situation as “fragile”.
Mahmour is 70 kilometers southeast of Mosul and 60 kilometers southwest of Arbil, the capital of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan.
The last time the two sides were involved in large-scale fighting was in 2017, when the Iraqi army launched a surprise attack on the Peshmerga in retaliation for the authorities holding a referendum on independence in the region. That referendum was characterized as a failure of the Kurdish leadership.
(file photo)
Source: News Beast
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