ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani said on Monday that the Kurds and Shiites have a common enemy, which is the Islamic State (ISIS), and therefore should not be fighting each other. "We condemn any sort of violence in Khurmatu, because we all have a common enemy [ISIS], therefore we should not point the barrels of our rifles at each other," Talabani told Rudaw. "What has happened in Khurmatu is heartbreaking and we are saddened by this," Talabani added. "It is not the first time these kinds of problems have happened... It has to be eradicated." Despite a truce, armed clashes resumed between Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Shiite militia in the troubled town of Khurmatu on Monday, 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. For the 11th time, the Kurdish population and the Peshmerga clashed militarily with Hashd al-Shaabi militants on Saturday 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 six killed on Monday including high military officials. Around 25 Shiite fighters were reportedly also killed.
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