Iraq: Islamic State militants breach Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga defenses, a U.S. serviceman killed
Kurdish Peshmerga forces in fight with IS militants. Photo: Peshmerga sources/sm
Islamic State militants attacked Kurdish peshmerga forces on multiple fronts in northern Iraq on Tuesday, breaching their defenses and briefly taking over a town, military sources said.
The attacks around the northern city of Mosul are the largest against Kurdish forces in recent months by the insurgents, who have been losing ground to an array of forces in the north and west of the country.
The head of a Christian militia said the insurgents had overrun their positions at dawn around the town of Tel Asqof, 20 km (12 miles) north of Mosul, and occupied it until being beaten back with the help of air strikes from a U.S.-led coalition.
“There were many suicide bombers and suicide car bombs,” said Safa Eliyas, the head of the Nineveh Protection Forces, which are deployed alongside the peshmerga in the area.