As the two sides engaged in combat in a hilly northern region on Sunday, one Iraqi soldier and one fighter from the Kurdish Peshmerga forces perished, according to Kurdish and Iraqi security sources.

Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) fighters fled and turned over to the Iraqi army their positions on Saturday near Makhmour.

However, the sources added that on Sunday, Peshmerga forces from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which is the dominant party in Iraqi Kurdistan, attempted to reclaim the positions, which set off the fighting.