Story highlights 22 dead in clashes between Shiite Turkmen and Kurdish forces in Tuz Khurmatu, Iraq

The two groups are allies in the fight against ISIS but have clashed before

Iraq's PM has called on both parties to cease hostilities and focus on common foe

(CNN) Twenty-two fighters have been killed in ongoing clashes between Kurdish Peshmerga and Shiite militia members in northern Iraq, local security officials say, a development that complicates the fight against ISIS in the region.

Security officials said the latest clashes erupted Saturday night in Tuz Khurmatu amid increased tensions between Shiite militias and Peshmerga forces -- uneasy allies in the fight against ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State -- in recent days.

Nine Kurdish fighters and 13 militia members were killed in the ongoing clashes, security officials said. Twenty people were wounded.

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According to officials, the clashes erupted when Shiite militias attacked a house belonging to a Peshmerga officer. Kurdish forces retaliated, and fighting broke out in several parts of the town within hours, officials said.

Home to Shiite and Sunni Turkmen as well as Arabs and Kurds, Tuz Khurmatu is an ethnically mixed town 56 miles south of Kirkuk that is claimed by both Iraq's central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government.