KIRKUK, Kurdistan Region – Peshmerga forces fresh off of retaking areas south of Kirkuk from Islamic State forces over the past two days have repelled a series of counterattacks overnight, Kurdish officials told Rudaw. ISIS militants have begun attacking Peshmerga forces in the newly liberated villages of Auzeria, Atshana, Shakh and Twella, Peshmerga official Sheikh Jaffar Sheikh Mustafa told Rudaw Monday. According to Peshmerga officials south of Kirkuk, at least 15 ISIS fighters were killed in the latest fighting, but the Peshmerga also had casualties, including the death of an officer and seven wounded. The engagements are taking place after a Peshmerga offensive to retake ISIS-held areas began Saturday in the south of the oil-rich province of Kirkuk. Kurdish officials have previously said the southeastern villages of Auzeria and Atshana were of key value to ISIS fighters to link areas under their control to Daquq. “We found out that the Daesh gunmen who attacked our forces in the villages including Atshana and Auzeria were coming from Hawija,” Tariq Ahmed, a Peshmerga official, told Rudaw Monday while using Daesh, the Arabic acronym for ISIS. Hawija is 55 kilometers southwest of Kirkuk and ISIS militants have been fleeing there following the Iraqi army’s capture of Tikrit. Backed by Shiite militias and air support from the US-led coalition, the battle for Tikrit in March was the Iraqi government's first major victory over ISIS in Iraq's Sunni heartland.
