ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Despite a truce, armed clashes resumed between Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Shiite militia in the troubled town of Khurmatu, killing one Peshmerga and wounding two civilians. "In today's fighting a Peshmerga soldier was killed," said a Rudaw reporter from the scene. The clashes resumed just one day after a ceasefire was brokered between Kurdish leadership and officials of the Shiite militia known as Hashd al-Shaabi. Khurmatu mayor, Shalal Abdul, told Rudaw, "The Khurmatu municipality building was fired on with mortars and the Peshmerga is repelling them." Rudaw has also learned that local Kurdish officials and Hashd al-Shaabi military leaders met in Khurmatu today to discuss details of the truce and resolve outstanding issues, but the attempts failed and fighting has resumed. "What has been happening in Khurmatu is the sign of a political movement aimed at committing ethnic cleansing against groups living in the area, and the state apparatus, in that regard, has been targeted [by hostile groups]," Ali Adib, an Iraqi MP from the State Law faction in the parliament, told Rudaw. Kurdish and Shiite officials said on Sunday they agreed to broker a truce following a meeting to de-escalate tensions in Khurmatu between the Peshmerga and the Shiite militia force. "We agreed to broker a ceasefire and, at the nearest juncture, we will hold a wide-ranging meeting to resolve the root of the issue," said Hadi al-Amiri, a high commander within the Hashd al-Shaabi, in a joint press conference with the Kirkuk Governor, Najmadin Karim, Sunday in Khurmatu. On Saturday night, for the 11th time, the Kurdish population and the Peshmerga clashed militarily with Hashd al-Shaabi militants in Khurmatu. What began as small-scale fighting between a few Kurdish youths and Shiite militia, later escalated into alley-to-alley clashes throughout a third of the town. The death toll in the Peshmerga forces rose to five killed on Sunday. Eight Shiite fighters were also killed, a Rudaw reporter said on Sunday.
