ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - More than 100 Shiite militiamen have been killed and wounded in an effort to reclaim the village of Bashir south of Kirkuk from Islamic State (ISIS) militants said a local official. Around "fifteen [Shiite militia] Hashd al-Shaabi members have been killed, 90 wounded and another 20 missing," in Monday's failed offensive into Bashir Nazm Kahiya, a provincial official in Kirkuk, told Rudaw. When the assault began, Kahiya claimed, Hashd al-Shaabi militants made advances into the village "but later they were defeated after being ambushed by ISIS militants." "The Hashd al-Shaabai militants have retreated from Bashir to the surrounding areas from where they launched an assault to recapture the village in the first place," he explained. Bashir fell to ISIS militants last year. Since then despite many attempts the Hashdi al-Shaabi has been unable to liberate it from ISIS's clutch. Bashir, a predominantly Shiite Turkmen village, is the biggest in the Kirkuk province.
