At least 60 IS militants killed as Peshmerga repel attacks

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (K24) - More than sixty Islamic State (IS) militants were killed on Friday in clashes with Kurdish Peshmerga forces along the Kirkuk and Makhmour front lines.

Peshmerga General Sirwan Barzani, commanding Kurdish forces at the Gwer-Makhmour front told K24 TV that his forces managed to kill at least fifty IS militants, of whose corpses seventeen fell into the Peshmerga hands. General Barzani said the attacks came early in the morning at 6:00 AM local time, and nearly thirty minutes later, US-led anti-IS coalition warplanes joined the fight. Clashes continued for about two hours, Barzani added.

The Commander did not specify how many airstrikes were conducted in support of Peshmerga forces. K24 learned that at least two Peshmerga soldiers were killed in action, although a Peshmerga officer refused to confirm.

The Gwer - Makhmour front is close to the town of Makhmour, that is some 100 kilometers southwest of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Elsewhere, in Kirkuk, Peshmerga forces came under attack during the same early morning hours as the Gwer-Makhmour attacks, some 50 kilometers northwest of the city of Kirkuk. Peshmerga commander Kemal Kirkuki told K24 that his forces killed eleven IS militants in an assault close to the village of Gara. No airstrikes were reported along the Kirkuk front.

Friday IS attacks in southwest Erbil, and western Kirkuk Provinces follow the coordinated assaults Wednesday on Newaran, Bashiqa, Khazir, and Zerdik mountain front lines in northern Nineveh Province. In the hours-long clashes, some seventy IS militants were killed, according to the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC). Six Peshmerga soldiers were also reported killed during the clashes, and at least ten others were wounded.

(Hoshmend Chekwani contributed to this report from Makhmour, Huner Ahmad and Soran Kamaran reported from Kirkuk)