ISIS launches attack against Peshmerga forces in the vicinity of Kirkuk
Armed clashes took place between ISIS militants and Peshmerga forces in the sprawling area, killing three Peshmerga fighters.
ISIS launched its attack on two sites of the Tenth Brigade of the Peshmerga forces, "which resulted in the martyrdom of a company commander and three Peshmerga fighters," according to a military source.
The Ministry of Peshmerga said in a statement that its forces "resisted and repelled strongly the attack launched by ISIS terrorists in the Dibs hills northwest of Kirkuk, indicating that the Peshmerga forces inflicted heavy losses on ISIS as the terrorists fled, leaving behind the bodies of their dead."
The Counter-Terrorism Service in the Kurdistan Region in a statement said that, at dawn, the members of the terrorist organization, ISIS, launched an attack on the heights near the village of Perkan, in the border area of the fifth bloc of the Peshmerga forces and on the sites of the tenth brigade of the Peshmerga forces.
The statement stressed that the attack had been countered and that the situation was now under the control of the Peshmerga forces
“The ISIS terrorists took advantage of the security void between the Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi forces, which is five kilometers long and 20 kilometers wide,” Nouri Hama-Ali, head of the Kirkuk-Pirde front line, told Kurdistan 24.
Hama-Ali pointed out that the attack took place early on Saturday morning, and the fight lasted 40 minutes until the Peshmerga forces chased out the terrorists.
"We have built and established security sites in the areas where there is a security vacuum, but the Iraqi government did not allow the Peshmerga to settle in them, so this falls within their responsibility," he said.
Hama Ali explained that ISIS launched its attack on the Peshmerga from two axes, indicating that the Peshmerga forces suffered casualties from just one of those axes.
Recently, the disputed areas, including Kirkuk, have witnessed escalating violence from ISIS, and it is directed against both civilians and security forces.
Senior officials in the Kurdistan Region have repeatedly warned that ISIS has already begun to regroup, and they have urged Baghdad to increase coordination with the Peshmerga in order to track down the remnants of the terrorist organization throughout the disputed areas, starting from Khanaqin in the southeast to Sinjar (Shingal) in the northwest.
The attack on the Peshmerga coincided with two armed assaults by ISIS militants on federal police in Kirkuk—making for four attacks in all early on Saturday morning: two against the Peshmerga and two against the federal police.
The first assault targeted the sites of the third division of the Federal Police in the Riyadh district, southwest of Kirkuk, while the second one targeted the 11th Federal Police Brigade in the Hawija district.
Editing by Laurie Mylroie
