Story highlights Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi demanded Thursday that Kurdish leaders cancel the results of its independence referendum

Dillon said the situation has had a negative impact on operations against ISIS

(CNN) Armed clashes between Iraqi and Kurdish forces in Northern Iraq are undermining the fight against ISIS, even as Iraqi troops launch an operation to capture what the US-led military coalition has called the terror group's "final stronghold" in Iraq.

A spokesman for the US-led coalition, US Army Col. Ryan Dillon, told CNN Thursday that the coalition was "aware of tensions and actions among Iraqi Security Forces, Popular Mobilization Forces and Peshmerga units in Iraq's Kurdish Region."

He said that the number of clashes between Kurdish and Iraqi security forces in recent days had remained steady despite the Kurdistan Regional Government's recent offer to "freeze" the results of the September referendum on independence, a vote that was opposed by the coalition.

Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi demanded Thursday that Kurdish leaders cancel the results of its independence referendum, rejecting a proposa l from the semi-autonomous region to "freeze" the outcome instead and begin talks over the future of the region.

Dillon said the situation has had a negative impact on operations against ISIS, impeding the coalition's ability to transfer arms and equipment to its allies in Syria and Iraq as it seeks to oust ISIS from its last bastions of control in the Middle Euphrates River Valley, which connects Iraq and Syria.

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