ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A Kurdish Peshmerga soldier was killed and another wounded by ISIS snipers in southern Kirkuk in northern Iraq on Saturday as they were helping escaping civilians reach behind their lines, a military commander said.
“In the Wadi Naft area in southern Kirkuk, ISIS marksmen fired at the Peshmerga as they were receiving civilians fleeing the group in Hawija,” said Mullah Sarzab Sitar, a Peshmerga officer on the front.
“When my men spotted a large crowd of people coming towards our outposts, several of them rushed to help bring them to safety. But ISIS snipers opened fire on them, killing one and wounding another,” Sitar said.
He added that “the Peshmerga soldiers were trying to get food to the IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons),” who were tired and hungry after escaping ISIS areas on foot. He said the arrivals included some 50 families.
Shortly after the incident, coalition warplanes arrived at the scene, “bombing the ISIS militants and killing a number of them,” Sitar added.
Military officials told Rudaw that some 300 families flee the clutches of the extremist group on a daily basis from Hawija, Riyadh and Rashad, all held by ISIS. They make the 12-hour trek on foot to reach the safety of Peshmerga frontlines in southern Kirkuk.
ISIS has lost hundreds of square kilometers of territory to Peshmerga forces on the Khazir and Gwer fronts in more than a week, as they close in on the ISIS-held stronghold of Mosul for an anticipated offensive to liberate the city by joint Iraqi and coalition forces.
