ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Coalition airstrikes have hit ISIS bases around Kirkuk city and Mekhmour town, reportedly damaging numerous vehicles and causing heavy casualties. Warplanes from the US-led coalition targeted ISIS efforts to dig a defense trench around Mekhmour and bombed a militant bases in the Kobaia district of Kirkuk, according to an Iraqi army officer. “While ISIS was trying to dig trench to stop Peshmerga and Iraqi army advances, coalition warplanes shelled the targets and caused heavy casualties and destroyed equipment and vehicles,” said Sirwan Osman Harki, an officer in the Iraqi army. Harki added that coalition strikes also destroyed vehicles near the villages of Khatab and Shorapalka where ISIS militates were digging with bulldozers.
