Breaking: Iraqi Troops and Kurdish Peshmerga Clash In Violence, 2 Iraqi Troops Shot and Wounded

This is really not good. Yesterday, a volatile situation broke out in the Iraqi province of Diyala where Iraqi troops and Kurdish Peshmerga troops clashed over some security issues and what ensued was hand to hand fighting and shots being fired - two Iraqi troops were wounded by gunfire.

Much as I hate to link to Reuters, they are the only ones up with this:

Iraqi soldiers and Kurdish peshmerga fighters exchanged punches and some gunfire along the volatile frontline between minority Kurds and Iraq's majority Arabs, Iraqi officials said on Monday.

A police official in the town said the incident began when a Kurdish peshmerga force parked in a "provocative" position in a market place, blocking other traffic.
An Iraqi army patrol ordered the Kurdish fighters to move but the peshmerga refused. Both sides then started trading insults until a scuffle broke out.
"The Kurdish vehicle drove away and it seems they went to get help. When they came back later clashes erupted," he said. "The Kurdish peshmerga were the first to open fire at the Iraqi military force, wounding two Iraqi soldiers."
One Kurdish peshmerga member was also wounded, he said.

The Kurds in northern Iraq and the Iraqis to the south certainly have had their extreme differences in the past and at the same time, the Kurds are seeing air attacks almost daily from Turkey to the north...so I guess the Kurds have a reason to be a bit testy. But what this depicts is just how volatile Iraq remains. I have lobbied for a U.S. presence in Iraq to continue - not because I want our troops in harm's way but we won this damn war in Iraq and I do not want to see it all go up in a powderkeg after we leave.

If you will note in the article, this skirmish between Iraqis and Kurds was STOPPED BY U.S. TROOPS! Who is going to break this up a year from now? And what would happen if, in this case, some Iraqi troops had been killed?

Iraq troops and Kurd fighters clash in volatile north

Iraqi soldiers and Kurdish peshmerga fighters exchanged punches and some gunfire along the volatile frontline between minority Kurds and Iraq's majority Arabs, Iraqi officials said on Monday.

The confrontation in Qarah Tappah in Diyala province came on Sunday as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden held talks with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad, providing a reminder of the flashpoints that Iraq still has to resolve as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw.

U.S. military leaders fear that long-running disputes between Kurds and Iraqi Arabs over land, oil and power could lead to Iraq's next major conflict as the sectarian bloodshed unleashed after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion recedes.

U.S. troops, and local leaders, intervened in Qarah Tappah and calm had returned, officials said. No one died.

Accounts of the fistfights and exchanges of gunfire given by Iraqi were contradictory and the U.S. military had no comment.

A police official in the town said the incident began when a Kurdish peshmerga force parked in a "provocative" position in a market place, blocking other traffic.

An Iraqi army patrol ordered the Kurdish fighters to move but the peshmerga refused. Both sides then started trading insults until a scuffle broke out.

"The Kurdish vehicle drove away and it seems they went to get help. When they came back later clashes erupted," he said. "The Kurdish peshmerga were the first to open fire at the Iraqi military force, wounding two Iraqi soldiers."

One Kurdish peshmerga member was also wounded, he said.

The official report of the incident said the clashes began when an Iraqi army vehicle crashed into a peshmerga Humvee and another car, an official in the Diyala operations center said.

A gunfight then broke out between Iraqi soldiers and Kurdish police, the official said.

One soldier and policeman were injured and fistfights later erupted between Kurdish fighters and Iraqi troops manning joint checkpoints in the area.

"This is not dangerous. These soldiers and peshmerga working on these checkpoints are young. They cannot control their tempers," the official said.

A third version given by a local Kurdish leader said Kurdish fighters beat a soldiers so badly his commanding officer ordered troops to storm the local peshmerga headquarters.

The Iraqi soldiers went in shooting, he said. Four of them were wounded. He had no information about peshmerga casualties.

U.S. forces have tried to bridge the divide between Kurdish and Iraqi army forces in disputed areas, which Kurds claim as part of their semi-autonomous northern enclave, by organizing joint Iraqi-Kurdish security checkpoints.

The U.S. military believes that by working together, the two sides can grow to trust each other. But the cooperation may vanish after U.S. forces withdraw from Iraq at the end of 2011.

The U.S. military plans to end combat operations in August ahead of next year's full pullout, as President Barack Obama refocuses U.S. efforts and resources on the war in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has proved resilient.