Peshmerga forces kill 21 ISIL Takfiri terrorists in northern Iraq

Iran Press TV

Fri May 1, 2015 5:35PM

Iraq's Kurdish Peshmerga forces have managed to kill nearly two dozen members of the ISIL Takfiri terrorists during a fierce exchange of gunfire in the northern province of Nineveh.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) spokesman in the northern city of Mosul, Saeed Mamouzini, said the Peshmerga fighters thwarted an ISIL attack on the town of Sinjar, situated over 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of the capital, Baghdad, on Friday and killed 21 terrorists in the fighting, Iraq's al-Sumaria satellite TV network reported.

The report comes as Kurdish fighters have extended their control over a large territory north of Iraq after pushing the ISIL terrorists further away from the strategic city of Kirkuk.

"We are repelling ISIL's advance here. These are Kurdish regions, but we are not occupying forces, but [rather] defensive units protecting all the different religious and ethnic groups living here," Saleh Amine, a field commander of Peshmerga forces, told Press TV on Thursday.

The commander-in-chief of Kirkuk's border guards also stated that the ISIL militants have been pushed backed closer to Mosul.

"The Kurdish Peshmerga are currently in full control of the outskirts of Kirkuk. We are cooperating with Kurdish troops to maintain security there. When the ISIL first captured Mosul, they advanced to regions 10 kilometers from Kirkuk but right now they are 55 kilometers away from the city," Fakhreddine Saeed said.

With the battles raging on in the western province of Anbar and the ongoing mop-up operations by the Iraqi security forces in the northern province of Salahuddin, it seems that Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces are making use of these conditions to further tighten the noose on ISIL in regions south of Kirkuk and also to tighten their grip on the oil-rich city.

ISIL launched an offensive in Iraq in June last year and took control of Mosul, the country's second-largest city.

MP/HSN/SS