Clashes between the Kurdish Peshmerga units and the Iraqi Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) have reportedly erupted near the Iraqi-Syrian border.
“This morning in Mahmudia near Rabiaa, PMF attacked peshemrge [Peshmerga] forces. Peshemrge repelled the attack and pushed PMF back in to Rabiaa,” Hemin Hawrami, a senior assistant to Iraqi Kurdistan’s President Masoud Barzani stated.
The clashes have intensified a day after Erbil demanded an “immediate” withdrawal of Iraqi troops from the Kurdistan region’s territory.
Following the independence referendum strongly criticized by Baghdad and many regional countries, the Iraqi government launched a military operation aiming to gain control over disputed territories, including those of Kirkuk, an oil-rich region, which followed the Iraqi Kurdistan’s decision to strive for separation.
The operation continued with Iraqi forces advancing toward the Syrian border in and the area of the Mosul Dam, according to information provided by the Kurdish Peshmerga Ministry.