By Halkawt Aziz KHURMATU – Shops reopened in Khurmatu on Monday, after peace returned following days of tensions and bloody clashes in which six Peshmerga soldiers and at least eight fighters of the Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi militia were killed, in addition to civilian casualties. Meanwhile, a number of Hashd fighters were reportedly killed by Islamic State (ISIS) militants on their way from Tikrit to Khurmatu, apparently as reinforcements. The number of casualties was not immediately known. Kurdish and Shiite officials said in Khurmatu on Sunday that they agreed to broker a truce, following a meeting to de-escalate tensions in the predominantly-Kurdish town. At around 23:40 on Saturday night, small-scale fighting between a few Kurdish youths and Shiite militia of the Hashd later escalated into alley-to-alley clashes in a third of the town, involving the Hashd and the Peshmerga. On Monday, as life began to return to normal, tensions in the town were still palpable. “After the political and military agreement between Kurds and Hashd there are still some tensions,” a Rudaw reporter noted. He said since the truce, one civilian was killed and two wounded. Still, shops lifted their shutters and residents began going about their business on Monday. The exact number of Hashd casualties remains in doubt, with unconfirmed reports from sources saying at least 25 had been killed and 40 wounded in the fighting. Khurmatu is located on the main highway that connects the Kurdistan Region to the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
