Fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) had evacuated positions near the town of Makhmour on Saturday and handed them over to the Iraqi army.

However, Peshmerga fighters from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the ruling party in Iraqi Kurdistan, tried to retake the positions on Sunday, triggering the clashes, the sources said.

Six Iraqi soldiers and five Peshmerga fighters were wounded. Two of the Iraqi soldiers were in critical condition, said health service sources.

The clashes lasted for around two hours before abating when commanders from both sides sought to defuse tensions, said military and Peshmerga sources.

But both sides are sending reinforcements to the area, said military sources, calling the situation “fragile”.

Makhmour is a mountainous area about 70km southeast of Mosul and 60km southwest of the Kurdish capital Erbil.

Last time armed clashes broke out between the two parties was in 2017, when Iraqi government forces launched a surprise offensive in retaliation for an independence referendum organised by the Kurdish regional government.