ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Large numbers of Islamic State (IS) militants withdrew from Shingal region on Monday and headed to the Syrian border, Kurdish Peshmerga forces told Rudaw. “Around sunset a convoy of about 30 IS vehicles left the area and drove towards the Syrian border,” said Haji Ibrahim, a veteran Yezidi Peshmerga. Ibrahim said that the IS militants were holding their front lines against the Peshmerga forces until Monday. Ibrahim said that the IS positions around Shingal have been the target of intense US airstrikes in the past few weeks. IS militants captured Shingal in early August, killing many Yezidi Kurds, taking hundreds captive and displacing around a quarter million. Ibrahim said that American airstrikes and Peshmerga ground assaults have taken their toll on the IS forces in the border region. With American and Arab airstrikes increasing against IS bases on both sides of the border, the radical group has been noticed moving its forces from several front lines in the Kurdistan Region to other parts of the country and across the border into Syria. IS militants are currently concentrated around Kobane in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) where the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) try to save the Kurdish town from falling to the radical group.
