Shafaq News/ More than 1,700 families have moved to Duhok from Sinjar in the aftermath of the ongoing security distress in the contested district, the head of Duhok's directorate of Migration and Displacement, Bir Dayan, said on Tuesday.

Dayan told Shafaq News Agency, "1,711 families were displaced to Duhok from Sinjar. Two hundred families went the opposite way to get back to their jobs."

"The directorate, in cooperation with the Barzani Foundation and Iraqi Displacement and Migration, continues  to provide aid to the displaced families," he said, "the aid covers the families residing inside and outside the displacement camps."

The residents left when clashes intensified on Monday between the Iraqi army and the YBS, a militia group with ties to the Turkish insurgent Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK).

Many were Yazidis displaced during the 2014 ISIS onslaught and are bracing for another round of violence after returning to their homes only a few years ago.

Most of the displaced were distributed across camps in the Kurdish region. 

The violence erupted when the Iraqi military launched an operation late Sunday to clear the area of YBS forces.

By Monday last week, the fighting spread to other areas in Sinjar district.

In a statement, the Iraqi military said Monday the offensive was to dismantle YBS checkpoints erected in Sinjar that have prevented citizens from returning to their homes and undermined Iraqi state authorities.

When Iraqi military units confronted YBS forces, the statement said, they were met with heavy fire, snipers, and explosives-laden devices on the roads.

The YBS has controlled much of Sinjar since 2014 driving out ISIS from the district.

Their continued presence in the area has drawn the ire of Turkey, which has been battling the PKK since the 1980s. It has led to regular Turkish military offensives on Iraqi soil to root them out.