ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Islamic State militants launched an assault on a Peshmerga stockade in Gurmz village near Tal Afar, and after three hours of fighting were repelled by Peshmerga forces, according to a Peshmerga official Saturday.
“At 6:15 am, ISIS fighters launched an attack on Peshmerga fronts in Tal Afar,” Khawal Khodiayd, the commander of the Peshmerga 1st Battalion in Shingal, told Rudaw.
Khodiayd added the attack did not result in Peshmerga casualties, saying that US-led coalition airstrikes had cooperated with the Peshmerga to combat ISIS in Tal Afar.
On Friday, The Kurdistan region’s Peshmerga forces completed an operation that pushed ISIS militants out of areas south of Kirkuk, military sources told Rudaw.
An area of approximately 150 square kilometers (58 square miles) was recaptured from the militants as Peshmerga forced ISIS out of 13 villages, the sources said.
The Peshmerga have remained a bulwark against ISIS expansion in northern Iraq ever since the militants attacked the Kurds in August last year, igniting a war in which some 1,200 Peshmerga have been killed, according to official figures.
