By Nawzad Mahmoud and Mahmoud Yasin
TUZ KHURMATU, Kurdistan Region – A Kurdish military official says that a Shiite militia which locked in a deadly clash with the Peshmerga this week south of Kirkuk, has thousands of new recruits, including nearly 2,000 Kurds.
The Hashd al-Shaabi Shiite militia has recruited and armed nearly 5,000 fighters, including around 1,800 Shiite Kurds, in recent months, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He said they had been recruited in Khanaqeen, south of Tuz Khurmatu, where the clashes took place
“They have an entire brigade for the Kurdish recruits in Khanaqeen, fully armed and funded,” he told Rudaw. “Even the commander of the brigade is a Shiite Kurd.”
The town of Khurmatu, approximately 80 kilometers south of Kirkuk, has witnessed two weeks of tensions between Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the Shiite militia known as Hashd al-Shabi.
Some 21 people were killed or wounded when Peshmarga troops clashed with the Shiite militia in Khurmatu earlier this week.
A disputed city claimed by Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen, the Iraqi constitution says that Khurmatu’s fate should be decided in a referendum, which has been indefinitely postponed since the deadline of 2007.
After an offensive south of Kirkuk city by the Islamic State group (ISIS) earlier this year, Kurdish and Iraqi-backed Shiite forces entered Khurmatu, jointly patrolling the area.
Last week’s clashes were the latest in a series of critical stand-offs between Shiites and Kurds, who both see the city and the wider area as their own.
Kurdish security forces told Rudaw they had detained 35 members of the Hashd, largely in retaliation to the Shiite militia arresting 48 local Kurds. Though most of the detainees on both sides are now free, still dozens remain in jails.
Khurmatu Mayor Shalal Abdu told Rudaw Wednesday he was hopeful of an agreement because there were ongoing negotiations between the two sides.
But Kurdish security forces are not as optimistic and say a lack of trust on both sides is to blame.
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