UPDATE: Peshmerga forces drive out ISIS from border area

 

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Kurdish Peshmerga forces have recaptured seven villages from the Islamic State (ISIS) around the border town of Zumar in the past few hours, an official said.

Muhsin Sadoon, an Iraqi member of parliament accompanying the Peshmerga on the battlefield said that by capturing the seven villages, the Peshmerga now control all the villages in the Zumar area on the border with Syria.

Kurdish forces launched a three-pronged ground assault against ISIS around Shingal Wednesday morning, following a night of coalition airstrikes against the radical group.

Our reporter added that the Peshmerga blocked all roads out of Mosul to prevent ISIS reinforcements from the Iraqi city the militants regards as their headquarters in the country.

Sadoon told Rudaw that dozens of ISIS militants have been killed the fighting and their bodies left in the battlefield.

Only two Peshmerga soldiers have been wounded, he said.