Army officer, Kurdish official killed in Iraq clashes

By Mohamed Waleed

NINEVEH, Iraq

At least six people were killed on Thursday, including a Kurdish official and an Iraqi army officer, in renewed clashes in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province, according to military sources.

“Wahid Bakuzi, a leading member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in the Sinjar district, was killed in an artillery exchange between Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga in the Zammar district of Nineveh province,” Peshmerga Lieutenant Mohieddin Fakher Zankana told Anadolu Agency.

Zankana added that two of Bazuki’s bodyguards had also been killed and another four injured.

Led by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) leader Masoud Barzani, the KDP is the senior coalition partner in northern Iraq’s KRG.

According to Shehab Shamsuddin, a lieutenant-colonel in the Iraqi army, clashes in the Zammar district’s Ain Oweis area went on for two hours, with both sides using heavy weapons.

Shamsuddin told Anadolu Agency that an Iraqi army officer and two soldiers had been killed -- and another three injured -- in Thursday’s fighting.

According to another military source, Peshmerga fighters had attacked Iraqi troops stationed in Makhmour in hopes of regaining control of the district’s capital.

“Clashes erupted after Peshmerga fighters tried to retake the district capital from Iraqi forces,” Army Captain Saad Ramadan told Anadolu Agency.

In a related development Thursday, the KRG blocked all roads into Mosul’s city center amid ongoing clashes between Peshmerga and Iraqi forces, according to another military source.

“In the wake of Thursday morning’s clashes, Peshmerga fighters closed the roads linking Mosul to Erbil, Duhok and Makhmour,” Iraqi Army Colonel Kazim Hussein al-Musawi told Anadolu Agency.

Peshmerga forces, he added, had set up checkpoints in the Al-Khazir area along the Erbil-Mosul highway, the Sheikhan district along the Duhok-Mosul highway, and the Makhmour district south of Mosul.

Along with Makhmour, al-Musawi said, fierce clashes were still underway in areas northwest of Mosul and in the Altinkopru district north of Kirkuk.

Tension has steadily mounted between Baghdad and the Erbil-based KRG since Sept. 25, when Iraqis in KRG-controlled areas voted on whether or not to declare independence from the Iraqi state.

Last week, government forces moved into several parts of Iraq disputed between Baghdad and the KRG, including the oil-rich Kirkuk province.

On Wednesday, the KRG -- fearing more military escalations by Baghdad -- offered to “freeze” the results of last month’s unconstitutional poll; halt all military activity; and enter into talks with the central government.