The Peshmerga forces have been in this area for longer. Mosul, Kirkuk and other parts of the state of Ninawa are what are best described as Iraq’s disputed territories. That is, there is land there that Iraqi Kurdistan says belongs to Iraqi Kurdistan but which Baghdad says belongs to Iraq. However in reality, the Iraqi Kurdish has been able to, at least partially, control some of these areas, as their military have remained in charge there.
And this could be one reason why the Peshmerga troops refused to allow the Iraqi army regiment to cross the village towards one of the border checkpoints, where the Iraqi army would have been able to stop Syrians passing back and forth between the two countries.
According to local eyewitnesses, the two military groups then began to cement their positions at either side of the village, by digging trenches. Both were showing they would not budge.
Official sources from within the Peshmerga said that no skirmishes had taken place but did admit that their troops had prevented the Iraqi military from approaching the border.
At a recent press conference held by the governor of the state of Ninawa, Atheel al-Nujaifi, he raised concerns about an Iraqi-Kurdish conflict, fuelled by differences over the Syrian conflict.
Ninawa’s governor informed gathered reporters that he knew nothing about the troop movements or the confrontation and that the local government had had nothing to do with any of the mobilizations.
The Ninawa operations command, the Iraqi army authority responsible for security in parts of the province not controlled by the Iraqi Kurdish, confirmed that they had moved some troops into areas of the city of Mosul to fill in gaps created by others heading out to border areas. However, the operations command would not comment on what was happening in Qahira, saying that only the federal Ministry of Defence could make statements on this matter.
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