Kurdish soldier killed in Daesh attack in N. Iraq

By Hussein al-Amir

BAGHDAD

A Kurdish soldier was killed and two others were injured in a Daesh attack in northern Iraq on Tuesday, according to a Kurdish Peshmerga officer.

Peshmerga forces thwarted an attack launched by Daesh militants in the Zarga village in Tuz Khurmatu city, south of Kirkuk, lieutenant colonel Senkar Hasan told Anadolu Agency.

He said a number of Daesh militants were killed in the hours-long confrontation.

The attack comes amid an Iraqi military operation to dislodge the Daesh terrorist group from Mosul, their last stronghold in Iraq.

Since last month, Daesh militants have mounted several attacks in Tuz Khurmatu, which has an ethnically diverse population of Turkmen, Kurds and Arabs.

Two Kurdish soldiers were killed and three others injured in a Daesh attack in Zarga on May 13.

Peshmerga forces also thwarted an attack by Daesh militants on an airbase in Tuz Khurmatu, which lies in an area of disputed territory between the Kurdish-administered north and southern regions under the central government.