BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Three members of Iraq’s presidential guard were kidnapped on Friday near a checkpoint run by Shi’ite militiamen close to the northern district of Tuz Khurmatu, police and a local official said.

Four other people, including a government employee, were killed in separate incidents, the police said, in and around the district - about 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad - where violence has flared in recent months.

Kurdish and Shi’ite Turkmen paramilitary forces have been uncomfortable allies against Islamic State since driving the ultra-hardline Sunni militants out of towns and villages in the area in 2014 with the support of U.S.-led airstrikes.

The tensions risk further fragmenting Iraq as it struggles to contain Islamic State, the biggest security threat since a U.S.-led invasion toppled autocrat Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Efforts to push back the insurgents have been complicated by sectarian and ethnic rivalries, including a contest for territory which the Shi’ite-led government in Baghdad claims, but the Kurds want as part of their autonomous region in the north of the country.

The presidential guards were travelling in a private vehicle towards Baghdad when they were taken by unknown gunmen around midday, said Mahdi Taqi, a member of the provincial council in Salahuddin where the district is located. Police from Tuz Khurmatu confirmed the details.

Separately, gunmen opened fire on a car carrying guards from the electricity ministry, killing one and critically wounding four others, police said.

Three civilians were killed in two separate incidents, and two others were also kidnapped.