ERBIL, Kurdistan – A Kurdish defense official denied allegations that any Peshmerga troops have been captured in fighting against the Islamic State (IS/ISIS) jihadists in Shingal and Zumar.

“No high-ranking officials or Peshmergas were captured,” Peshmerga ministry spokesman Halgurd Hikmat told Rudaw.

“In the past few days we have had martyrs and Peshmerga sustaining injuries, and this is expected in warfare. There are no wars without bloodshed, without guns being fired, and every war has its advancements and withdrawals,” he added.

The Peshmerga, who have been receiving new advanced weapons and greater support from the United States and the West, have gone on the offensive against the militants.

Sources told Rudaw that in Mosul, which IS has named the capital of its self-declared Islamic state, militants forced residents to give blood for wounded fighters.

Earlier Tuesday IS published a series of photos online showing Yezidis who have been killed.

Kurdish forces have been locked in intense fighting in Shingal, a majority Yezidi town, to push out the IS which especially targets Yezidis and other non-Muslims for their religious beliefs.

Saad Mamuzini, an official of the dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party, said in a statement to Rudaw that IS fighters who had attacked Peshmerga troops in many areas were defeated and had sustained heavy losses.

He said IS had unsuccessfully attacked Kurdish forces in the village of Khushaf and the town of Gwer in Makhmour.

Mamuzini also said that the Iraqi air force had destroyed 14 ISIS vehicles, killing 62 militants in the process.

IS is currently using Mosul as an attack base, reloading ammunition and treating wounded militants, according to Mamuzini.

Rudaw