Coalition airstrike kills 8 Daesh militants in Kirkuk

By Hussein al-Amir

BAGHDAD

At least 8 Daesh militants were killed by a U.S.-led coalition airstrike late Friday in Kirkuk in northern Iraq, according to an Iraqi police officer.

The strike targeted a group of militants planning to stage an attack against Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northwestern Kirkuk, police captain Hamed al-Ebeidi told Anadolu Agency.

Meanwhile, a Peshmerga fighter was killed in clashes with Daesh militants in the area on Friday, al-Ebeidi said.

Daesh still holds some areas in southwestern Kirkuk province, which the terrorist group overran -- along vast swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq -- in 2014.

In late October, the Iraqi army, backed by U.S.-led coalition warplanes, launched a major offensive to recapture Mosul, once Iraq’s second largest city in terms of population, from the terrorist group.