ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Kurdish Peshmerga forces have killed dozens of Islamic State (ISIS) foreign fighters in three days of battle near the Syrian border, a frontline commander said.
Captain Ali, a Peshmerga commander near the town of Sinune said that his forces have killed more than 75 foreign fighters, among them Germans, Tunisians, Nigerians, Russians, Africans and Europeans.
“We have taken photos of their passports and IDs and their bodies still lie there,” Cpt. Ali told Rudaw.
He said that the ISIS militants are in disarray and they have fled in every direction, some of them to Mosul and others to Syria.
“Most of the militants around here are foreign nationals,” he said.
He said that the Peshmerga had advanced 102 kilometers into ISIS territory in the past 12 hours.
“There was little resistance or counterattack from ISIS,” he explained. “They did not expect us to advance so quickly and go this far.”
According to Cpt. Ali, local Arabs have turned their back on the radical group “and the fighting is mostly done by the foreign fighters.”
“We have captured around 30 villages and currently surround about 100 villages,” he added.
Cpt. Ali said that ISIS militants have been completely cut off from their main base of Mosul and parts of Syria due to the Peshmerga control of the border area.
On Wednesday Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched a major assault against ISIS west of the Tigris River, capturing more than 700 square kilometers.
Cpt. Ali said that the attack has been conduct in nine different operations and on many fronts.
In the latest operation the Kurdish forces lifted a four-month long siege on Mount Shingal where hundreds of Yezidi families were stranded since they came under ISIS attack last summer.
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