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Two dead, 10 wounded after Iraqi, Kurdish forces clash in northern Iraq

By Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN
November 19, 2012 -- Updated 1057 GMT (1857 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Iraqis tried to search a house belonging to a Kurdish political party member, officials say
  • They say a bodyguard threw a grenade at the Iraqi soldiers and fighting broke out
  • The fighting took place in a disputed area

Read a version of this story in Arabic.

Baghdad (CNN) -- Two people were killed and 10 others wounded in clashes Friday between Iraqi soldiers and Kurdish forces in Tuz Khurmato, a town in a disputed area of northern Iraq, police officials in Kirkuk and Baghdad told CNN.

The clashes erupted when Iraqi soldiers attempted to search a house belonging to Goran Najam, a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, officials said. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is the current leader of the PUK.

One of Najam's bodyguards threw a grenade at the soldiers and fighting broke out, officials said.

An Iraqi soldier was killed as well as one other person, officials said. It was not immediately clear if the second victim was a civilian or one of Najam's bodyguards.

The ethnically mixed town of Tuz Khurmato is part an area claimed by the semiautonomous region of Kurdistan and by the Baghdad government.

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