国际英语新闻:U.S.-led coalition says Iraqi forces, Kurdish Peshmerga reach cease-fire

BAGHDAD, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The U.S.-led coalition on Friday confirmed that a cease-fire has been reached between the Iraqi force and the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, a Kurdish media reported.

"What we know is that there is a cease-fire," Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesperson for the international coalition told Rudaw television.

Dillon said the coalition wants the cease-fire to be extended so that the two sides will "refocus" on the fight against the terrorist Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq, the Kurdish channel said.

"We certainly want that (cease-fire) to extend, to not be just a cease-fire for a short period of time, but that it extends to no more fighting," Dillon said.

The coalition is "encouraging dialogue, through trying to get the right people from both Peshmerga and the Iraqi security forces. So that something could be worked out diplomatically," Dillon added.

Dillon comments came a day after heavy clashes between the two sides on Thursday as the government troops advanced to seize more disputed areas outside the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.

Heavy clashes erupted in Rabi'a and Zummar areas as the troops advanced towards the village of Faysh-Khabur near the Iraqi-Syrian-Turkish border to seize the border crossing point of Ibrahim al-Khalil between Iraq and Turkey.

More clashes occurred during the day on the main road outside the town of Makhmour, some 60 km southwest of Erbil, between the security forces and Kurdish Peshmerga, the source said.

The two sides also traded mortar and artillery barrage in Altun Kupri, some 40 km north of the city of Kirkuk.

On Oct. 16, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered government forces to enter the oil-rich Kirkuk province in northern Iraq to regain control of the ethnically-mixed disputed areas.

The Kurds consider the northern Kirkuk province and parts of Nineveh, Diyala and Salahudin provinces as disputed areas and want them to be incorporated into their region, a move fiercely opposed by the Arabs and Turkmens in the region as well as the Iraqi central government.

Tensions have been running high between Baghdad and the region of Kurdistan after the Kurds held a controversial referendum on the independence of the Kurdistan region and the disputed areas.