Two Kurdish traffic police officers pose for the camera in a square in the old city of Erbil, Iraq September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah
ERBIL, Iraq - 22 September 2017: An Iraqi Yazidi group backed by Turkish Kurds and Iranian-backed Iraqi Shi'ite paramilitary clashed on Friday near the border with Syria, a local security official said.
Several people were wounded and possibly killed.
The confrontation broke out at the checkpoints that separates the Yazidis' YBS, considered a branch of PKK, a Turkis Kurd separatist group, and Popular Mobilisation, a coalition of mainly paramilitary groups trained and armed by Iran, said a security official in the Yazidi Sinjar region in northwest Iraq. YBS stands for Sinjar Resistance Units.
It took place as the Kurdistan Regional Governemnt prepares for a referendum on Monday on indepedence in the region under its control, including Sinjar.
It is the first clash betweeen the two groups since Popular Mobilisation units deployed in May in the region south of Sinjar and near the border with Syria which they captured from Islamic State militants, he said.
The confrontation broke out because of a personal dispute and lasted several hours, he said.
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