24 October 2016•Update: 24 October 2016
By Jamal al-Badrani
NINEVEH, Iraq
Kurdish Peshmerga forces on Monday repelled a Daesh attack near Sinjar town in northern Iraq, according to a local commander.
Daesh militants mounted a surprise attack at dawn on Peshmerga forces stationed west of Sinjar using car-bombs, Lukman Ibrahim, a Peshmerga commander in Sinjar, told Anadolu Agency.
“Our forces, however, have managed to repel the attack and killed more than ten militants,” he said.
No casualties were reported among Kurdish troops.
Last week, the Iraqi army, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, launched a much-anticipated offensive to retake Mosul, the last Daesh stronghold in northern Iraq.
The terrorist group captured Iraq’s second largest city in mid-2014 before overrunning large swathes of territory in the country’s northern and western regions.
Recent months have seen the Iraqi army, backed by local allies on the ground and a U.S.-led air coalition, retake much of the territory seized by Daesh. Nevertheless, the terrorist group remains in control of several parts of the country, including Mosul.
In recent weeks, the army and its allies have staged a gradual advance on the city, which officials in Baghdad have vowed to recapture by year’s end.
