Armed groups linked to the PKK terrorist organization clashed with Syrian Peshmerga forces late Thursday in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province, according to a Peshmerga source.

“Our forces were prevented from entering the town of Snuny in Hanasur village [in Nineveh province] by the PKK’s Sinjar defense units,” Colonel Kadir Sheikh Mami, a commander of Syrian Peshmerga forces (known as “Roj Peshmerga”).

According to Mami, Sinjar defense units opened fire on Roj Peshmerga fighters -- who fight under the umbrella of the Kurdish Regional Government’s Peshmerga forces -- as they attempted to pass through the area.

Four Syrian Peshmerga fighters and three PKK-linked militants, he said, were injured in the clashes.

Late Thursday, 500 Syrian Peshmerga fighters were deployed to the town of Snuny to reinforce the Iraq-Syria border and drive PKK terrorists from Sinjar.

Although the Peshmerga purged Sinjar of IS militants in 2015, the PKK has largely retained control of the district, refusing to allow Peshmerga forces to assume control of the area.