Peshmerga: 21 killed or wounded in Khurmatu unrest

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Since the peak of sporadic clashes in Khurmatu over the last week, 21 people have been killed or wounded there, a Peshmerga official said Tuesday,

„Violence in Khurmatu has resulted in the death and wounding of 21 people, including seven Kurds and others from Arabs and Turkmens of the city,“ Jabar Yawar, chief of staff of the Peshmerga ministry, told Rudaw.

He said the clashes were strange, because there had been no order from the Kurdish leadership or officials of the Hashd al-Shaabi Shiite militia for engagement.

„There has been no decree by the Kurdish and Hashd al-Shaabi leaderships for waging any outright war against each other in Khurmatu,” he said.

“Rather it was a group of trouble makers causing uproar and sedition in the city, who are interested in looting and thieving,“ Yawar said.

He added that senior officials from the Pshmerga and Hashd al-Shaabi are working to de-escalate the situation.

An official at the Khurmatu mayor’s office told Rudaw Monday that several high military officials of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Hashd al-Shaabi Shiite militias met in Khurmatu to discuss escalating violence between the two factions.

Mohamed Jala of the Khurmatu mayor’s office told Rudaw that to avoid further escalation of violence and restore calm, many PUK high military officials, led by PUK senior member Adnan Hama Mina, met with leaders of the Hashd al-Shaabi to hold talks on the current tensions in Khurmatu.

Ethnically and religiously mixed Khurmatu currently has a Kurdish mayor, and is located in the disputed Diyala province, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Kirkuk.

Fighting in Khurmatu broke out on Friday when a Shiite militia convoy allegedly refused to stop at a checkpoint manned by Kurdish forces, resulting in a firefight that left three Peshmerga and two Shiite militiamen dead.