IS Commander Killed in Peshmerga Ambush Near Syrian Border

DUHOK, Kurdistan Region—Kurdish forces have killed the commander of the Islamic State (IS) forces near Rabia in an ambush Thursday evening, said a Peshmerga leader.

“We destroyed two IS vehicles and when we checked the corpses we found that one of them was Ammar al-Hassan who was the most prominent IS leader west of the Tigris River,” Qasim Shesho, commander of the Peshmerga forces on Mount Shingal told Rudaw.

Shesho said that his forces ambushed the IS convoy at Guhbal town near the Rabia border crossing with Syria.

“Al-Hassan is a member of the Jiheshi tribe,” said Shesho. “He was in the Al-Qaeda for many years and later join the IS.”

Shesho who also leads new units of Yezidi fighters in the region said that Al-Hassan’s killing “would demoralize the Islamist fighters in the area.”

No Peshmerga casualties were reported in the fighting.

According to Shesho, three Yezidi girls had also escaped IS captivity on Thursday and reached the safety of Mount Shingal.

“Kurdish special forces picked up the girls and took them to Duhok,” he said.

The Yezidi girls, aged between 12 and 20, were captured by Islamist militants at Kucho village last month.

Unofficial sources in Kurdistan say that around 1,800 Yezidi women and young girls are currently held captive by the IS in Mosul and elsewhere in Iraq and Syria.