Three Islamic State fighters said killed by wild boars

Three Islamic State fighters were killed in northern Iraq on Sunday when they were attacked by a herd of wild boars, a local tribal chief told The Times of London.

According to the report, the three fighters were part of an IS detachment planning to attack local anti-jihadist tribal forces. The boars came upon them as the men hid in a bed of reeds in the Hamrin mountains – southwest of Kirkuk – ahead of a planned ambush.

Five more fighters were wounded in the boars’ stampede.

“It is likely [the IS fighters’] movement disturbed a herd of wild pigs, which inhabit the area as well as the nearby cornfields,” the Times quoted Sheikh Anwar al-Assi of the local Ubaid tribe that organized the anti-IS unit as saying.

Al-Assi also charged that the jihadists had carried out a “massacre” in the Hawija area of civilians attempting to flee to Kurdish-controlled areas ahead of a planned offensive by the Iraqi military against IS forces in the area.

Some 25 people were executed by the fighters last week, al-Assi said.

“This will not be ISIS’s last massacre against citizens,” he is quoted as saying.