Frontline commander recounts Friday’s ISIS attack on Peshmerga defense lines

05-03-2016
Rudaw
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Tags: ISIS' war Peshmerga coalition
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Front Peshmerga commander known as Zaim Ali recounts to Rudaw details of Friday's ISIS attack against the Kurdish defense lines west of Mosul.

We had precise  information that ISIS was preparing for a huge attack. The attack took place in a wide area, it started from Aske in Mosul, Ashq, and Kaske. This area is 20 km wide. As they started the attack, we knew in advance. It was 5:00 am. They attacked our Peshmerga front lines, but the Peshmerga were ready for them.

They left many dead bodies, approximately 70 bodies which were filmed by the media. 5 Hummers were also destroyed. Two of them by with Milan missiles, and three by the coalition. We really thank them for their role. They destroyed a suicide tank.

 They had been preparing for this attack for a long time. Some 400 militants took part in it.

 The commander in chief was an Uzbek militant. He had long hair. He was in charge of the foreign militants. We are not sure if he was killed, but certainly there are commanders among the dozens that were killed.

It was heavy fighting. Peshmerga repulsed the assault very well, but we sent support forces to help them. We divided the reinforcements on three front lines to help our forces if they needed help.

Yes we have many wounded Peshmerga and fortunately no one was killed. We let the media film the dead bodies of ISIS so that people know the truth. This was the first heavy attack in a wide area in five or six months. They wanted to achieve something this time. But they were not successful and were taught a good lesson by the Peshmerga.

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