Kurdish, popular volunteer fighters halt clashes in north Iraqi town

Iraqi Kurdish and popular volunteer fighters have reached an agreement to cease hostilities in a disputed town north of the country.

Hadi Ameri, the commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), said on Sunday that paramilitary fighters had reached a deal to end the fighting in Tuz Khormato in Salahuddin Province.

Ameri said the senior figures from the two sides will “sit down imminently” to discuss the terms of an agreement which is meant to calm down the situation in the city located about 200 km north of Baghdad.

“We are against any conflict involving Turkmens, Kurds and Arabs in Tuz Khormato and reject military solution,” said Ameri who reportedly traveled to the city after fighting surged between the Kurdish peshmerga forces and popular volunteer fighters.

The fighting on Sunday came after two neighbors, a Kurd and a Shia Turkmen, became involved into a quarrel only to trigger a wider military confrontation in the city, said Karim al-Nouri, the spokesman for PMF. The official accused the Kurds of using tanks and shelling homes belong to Turkmen residents.

SS