ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdish Peshmerga forces, with the backing of coalition warplanes, have successfully recaptured parts of the village of Bashir from the Islamic State (ISIS) in southern Kirkuk on Saturday. “Daesh gunmen continue to resist and they have attacked us with an explosive-laden car that wounded one of our forces,” Peshmerga commander Ramazan Bekoni told Rudaw English. Peshmerga forces are now engaged in street fighting with ISIS militants in the town, according to the source. Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi militias, who had tried and failed to retake the town several times, have not entered the village with the Peshmerga. Sources said that the Hashd al-Shaabi handed command of parts of the Bashir frontline over to the Peshmerga on Friday. “Peshmerga forces are the only force battling the radical group inside the village,” Bekoni said. The assault was supported by US-led coalition warplanes, which carried out a wave of airstrikes on Bashir at 5am on Saturday. ISIS fired up to 12 mortars on the Peshmerga Saturday morning and planted several bombs in an effort to halt the Peshmerga advance. Bashir, 20 kilometers south of Kirkuk city, is a predominantly Shiite town that fell to ISIS last year. Since then, the Hashd forces launched several failed offensives to recapture the village. Before the town fell to ISIS last year, 1,800 families were living there.
.png&w=3840&q=75)
