KIRKUK, Iraq — Kamel Ali Abbas, a Kurd, joined the Iraqi army in 2004, when it was being rebuilt following the US-led invasion. An artillery sergeant and a Kirkuk native, Abbas took part in the battle for Mosul in 2016-17, fighting with his fellow soldiers, allied militias of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) alongside other Kurds in the peshmerga against the Islamic State (IS). Now the army and the PMU are fighting the peshmerga.

“The PMU were coming in with the sound of bombardments,” Abbas, using a pseudonym for his protection, told Al-Monitor via WhatsApp call while explaining why he moved his family from Kirkuk to Erbil for their safety at the start of clashes between Iraqi and Kurdish forces, which began Oct. 16. “Had it not been for my children, I would have stayed as a soldier. But for them I had to leave."

With the Baghdad government and the Kurdistan Regional Government having turned their guns against one another, Abbas and other Kurds in the Iraqi army fear the potential of reprisals from both sides and for their jobs.

Abbas has worried about his job security in the Iraqi army since the Sept. 25 Kurdistan independence referendum. “People who voted 'yes' may be kicked out,” he said. “If I’m kicked out, I must prove I didn’t vote and am loyal so I can stay.”