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FILE - In this Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014 file photo, Iraqi security forces and Shiite militiamen fire at Islamic State group positions during an operation outside Amirli, some 105 miles (170 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. When the Islamic State group staged a lightening advance across much of northern Iraq last year, it expanded its rule to about a third of the country, drawing in different groups with different motivations for taking up arms. In many cases, former rivals are now finding themselves in an uneasy alliance as they seek to combat the Sunni extremist group. Here are the groups involved in the anti-Islamic State war in Iraq and what they each hope to accomplish. (AP Photo, File)(The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Saturday, June 21, 2014 file photo, volunteers in the newly formed "Peace Brigades" raise their weapons and chant slogans against the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant during a parade in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq. When the Islamic State group staged a lightening advance across much of northern Iraq last year, it expanded its rule to about a third of the country, drawing in different groups with different motivations for taking up arms. In many cases, former rivals are now finding themselves in an uneasy alliance as they seek to combat the Sunni extremist group. Here are the groups involved in the anti-Islamic State war in Iraq and what they each hope to accomplish.(AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, File)(The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Thursday, July 3, 2014 file photo, a member of an elite unit of women Kurdish Peshmerga fighters trains in Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles (260 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, Iraq. When the Islamic State group staged a lightening advance across much of northern Iraq last year, it expanded its rule to about a third of the country, drawing in different groups with different motivations for taking up arms. In many cases, former rivals are now finding themselves in an uneasy alliance as they seek to combat the Sunni extremist group. Here are the groups involved in the anti-Islamic State war in Iraq and what they each hope to accomplish. (AP Photo, File)(The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Tuesday, June 24, 2014 file photo, members of an Iraqi volunteer force put on their newly issued boots in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq. When the Islamic State group staged a lightening advance across much of northern Iraq last year, it expanded its rule to about a third of the country, drawing in different groups with different motivations for taking up arms. In many cases, former rivals are now finding themselves in an uneasy alliance as they seek to combat the Sunni extremist group. Here are the groups involved in the anti-Islamic State war in Iraq and what they each hope to accomplish. (AP Photo/Ahmed al-Husseini, File)(The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Monday, June 16, 2014 file photo, Shiite tribal fighters raise their weapons and chant slogans against the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), now called the Islamic State group, in Basra, Iraq. When the Islamic State group staged a lightning advance across much of northern Iraq last year, it expanded its rule to about a third of the country, drawing in different groups with different motivations for taking up arms. In many cases, former rivals are now finding themselves in an uneasy alliance as they seek to combat the Sunni extremist group. (AP Photo/Nabil Al-Jurani, File)(The Associated Press)

KIRKUK, Iraq Shiite Arab militias have flooded into northern Iraq's Kirkuk region to help Kurdish forces battle the Islamic State group, but their uneasy alliance threatens to reignite a much older conflict over the oil-rich area pitting the largely autonomous Kurds against the Arab-led government in Baghdad.

All across Iraq, the rapid advance by the Islamic State extremists over the past year has drawn longtime rivals into reluctant alliances. The shared struggle could with time help Iraqis forge a long-elusive sense of national unity. But it also risks papering over disputes that could burst into the open if the threat subsides.

Here are some of the strange bedfellows in Iraq's fight against the Islamic State group.

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KURDS AND SHIITES:

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War on Islamic State group makes for uneasy alliances in divided Iraq