Kurdish peshmerga forces repulsed a major attack by the Islamic State jihadist group southwest of Iraqi Kurdistan’s capital Erbil, officials say.
“The attack which was launched at 8:00 pm (1700 GMT on Tuesday) was foiled. It lasted four hours and we killed 34 IS members,” Sirwan Barzani, the local peshmerga commander, tells AFP.
He says around 300 jihadists had attacked the villages of Sultan Abdallah and Tal al-Rim, between the towns of Gweyr and Makhmur, an area about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Erbil.
Kurdish peshmerga fighters detonate a landmine planted by the Islamic State (IS) group fighters on the outskirts of the village of Sinuni in the northern Iraqi district of Sinjar on January 15, 2015, after it was recaptured by Kurdish peshmerga troops. (photo credit: AFP/SAFIN HAMED)
“Daesh (IS) was not able to use heavy military vehicles or car bombs due to trenches dug out by peshmerga on the front lines,” says Barzani, also the nephew of Kurdish leader Massud Barzani.
He says the IS offensive achieved no gains and added that his operation received air support from the US-led coalition which has carried out hundreds of strikes against IS since August 2014.
“The clashes are over now. We are collecting their bodies,” says Najat Ali, the deputy peshmerga commander on the Makhmur front.
— AFP
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