ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—In an attack on the town of Gwer in the early hours of Saturday by the Islamic State (ISIS) 24 members of the local Kurdish security forces were killed, officials said.
Military officials said that ISIS militants attacked the Kurdish positions from nine fronts which led to several hours of intense fighting with the Kurdish Peshmerga forces.
“The ISIS attack was unexpected but it was a risk they took and they didn’t succeed,” said Sirwan Barzani, the commander of the Gwer-Makhmour region. “What ISIS did was just a guerilla-style attack and they didn’t capture any areas.”
Erbil police have released pictures of the 24 members of the Gwer security force who were killed in Saturday's attack.
According to the Kurdish commander the militants had reached the area by crossing the Tigris and Ze rivers on boats and rafts under the cover of fog and darkness.
It was reported that the Peshmerga forces had retreated from their positions in the beginning of the ISIS attack, to which Barzani said. “It is not always winning in a war, sometimes you fail too, but we responded immediately and repelled all nine attacks.”
The commander believed that 500 ISIS militants had taken part in the offensive under the direct command of the group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“38 militants were killed in the confrontations and two of them were emirs,” he added.
Barzani added that fighting still continues between the Peshmerga and ISIS militants in the area, saying, “The distance between us and ISIS is only 500 meters, so I cannot ask people to return to their homes if ISIS artillery reaches them.”
In the last two weeks ISIS has launched several attacks in the area to retake Sultan Abdullah, Tal Shaiir and some other villages they lost to the Peshmerga forces in December.
