ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Islamic State (ISIS) militants on Wednesday launched a prolonged mortar barrage at a military base in Iraq where Turkish forces are training Sunni militiamen, killing two of the trainees and wounding six. Former Mosul Governor Atheel Nojaifi told Rudaw by telephone that Turkish trainers were unhurt. But Turkey’s official Anadolu Agency reported that four Turkish soldiers were hurt. “Although no life-threatening injuries were reported, the wounded soldiers were rushed to a hospital in Turkey's Sirnak province,” the agency said. The mortar attack, which lasted three hours, targeted the Gudad military base in the town of Bashik, in Iraq’s Mosul province, according to Nojaifi. More than 100 Turkish troops reportedly entered Iraq's Mosul province on December 5, reportedly with tanks and heavy weapons. They are stationed in the towns of Zlekan and Bashik, in eastern Mosul province, reportedly to train volunteers of the Sunni Hashd al-Wataniya militia. Meanwhile, six Peshmerga soldiers were killed and seven wounded in a separate ISIS suicide bombing at a military base near Kaske, west of Mosul, Peshmerga sources said.
