Peshmerga repulse heavy ISIS assault on strategic town

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Peshmerga forces repulsed a heavy assault on the strategic village of Sultan Abdallah, only 80 kilometers from the Kurdish capital, killing all of the Islamic State (ISIS) attackers and suffering no casualties, a commander said.

“The entire force that attacked us in the village was killed and the bodies are in the hands of the Peshmerga forces,” said Sirwan Barzani, general commander of Kurdish forces on the Makhmour-Gwer fronts.

“They had brought armored vehicles and Humvees to back their assaults but we destroyed them all with the help of our mortars,” said Najat Ali, another commander on the front.

“The militants left heavy weapons behind, which were captured by the Peshmerga,” he said, adding there were no Peshmerga casualties.

Ali said that foggy weather had prevented air raids by coalition forces during the attack, but that the jets had targeted ISIS bases afterwards.

Meanwhile, an Iraqi military source told Rudaw that Nofal Omari, an ISIS leader ranked fifth after the group’s top chief, was killed in a US air raid on a village in the Shingal area.