ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least four Iraqi Army soldiers were wounded on Tuesday in Islamic State (ISIS) suicide attacks on the Makhmour front in northern Iraq, a Peshmerga official told Rudaw. ISIS bombers launched three suicide attacks at about 3 a.m., said the source. "It appears that ISIS has taken advantage of the foggy weather to launch their attacks," he said. The official also explained that "two of the suicide bombers were killed before they detonated their payloads and the third managed to detonate his explosives, wounding four soldiers." In the meantime, bad weather also helped ISIS to launch another assault early Tuesday, this one on Peshmerga frontlines in southern Kirkuk, wounding five, including a prominent commander. The Iraqi army has in the past few weeks deployed thousands of troops to the Makhmour region to prepare for a joint operation with coalition and Kurdish forces to drive out the Islamic State (ISIS) in Mosul, the extremists’ stronghold in Iraq. In earlier comments to Rudaw about the Iraqi Army base in Makhmour, Peshmerga Commander Najat Ali had warned that the location was unsafe and open to rocket attacks. Early this month, four Iraqi soldiers were killed and at least 23 wounded in an ISIS rocket attack on their base near Makhmour.
