ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least 15 militants of the Islamic State group (ISIS) were reportedly killed while trying to infiltrate across Peshmerga stockades in the village of Bashary in western Mosul, a Kurdish military official told Rudaw.

“An ISIS group of 15 militants tried to infiltrate across a Peshmerga stockade but was repulsed, said Captain Khalid Hamzo, deputy commander of the Duhok Peshmerga Battalion.

“Before reaching the Peshmerga barrier they were gunned down,” he told Rudaw Friday, adding that an ISIS emir, or governor, named Adnan, was among the dead.

“The ISIS position was bombarded several times by Peshmerga and repulsed. Later, the US coalition managed to conduct airstrikes on the ISIS stronghold and kill them all,” Hamzo said.

Mosul fell to ISIS in June last year. The defeat was a humiliation for the Iraqi Army, with many troops known to have abandoned their weapons and uniforms as they fled the Islamist onslaught.

Rudaw