IRAQ: Peshmerga fighters continue to hold line in Kirkuk

Record ID: 375765

  • Title: IRAQ: Peshmerga fighters continue to hold line in Kirkuk
  • Date: 23rd August 2014
  • Summary: KIRKUK, IRAQ (AUGUST 23, 2014) (REUTERS) PESHMERGA FIGHTERS NEAR GUARDS POST PESHMERGA FIGHTERS AND MACHINE GUNS AT RAMPART PESHMERGA FIGHTER LOOKING THROUGH BINOCULARS AT TERRITORY CONTROLLED BY ISLAMIC STATE VARIOUS OF BLACK FLAG OF ISLAMIC STATE AT FAR END OF BRIDGE VARIOUS OF PESHMERGA FIGHTERS WITH MACHINE GUNS ON RAMPART BLACK FLAG OF ISLAMIC STATE / TRUCK DRIVING
  • Embargoed: 7th September 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVAF4VHI7SAZ02EMVQNTCL1JRDVC
  • Story Text: Peshmerga Kurdish forces intensified their defences in the southern parts of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk on Saturday (August 23), defending ramparts just a few hundred metres away from Islamic State militants.
    A black flag of Islamic State could be seen at the far end of a bridge as Kurdish forces looked on Kurdish officers in the area admit that Islamic State pose a potential threat to the city of Kirkuk, but are confident that the peshmerga fighters can defend the city.
    "There are more than 30,000 peshmerga fighters in this frontline and inside Kirkuk whose task is to defend Kirkuk city," said Major General Rasoul Omar Lateef, Commander of Kirkuk Operation Command.
    "They have high morale and spirit and they are still steadfast. Our area, which includes the villages of Mulla Abdulah, al-Bashir and Tel al-Ward, is a battle area. We have lost more than 50 of our fighters in the area and more than 400 wounded since the start of the fighting (last June). The Islamic militants are trying to attack and capture Kirkuk."
    Kirkuk, a strategic oil town 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad has been held by Kurdish forces since government troops melted away in June.
    An advance by Islamic State through northern Iraq has alarmed the Baghdad government and its Western allies and drawn U.S. air strikes in Iraq for the first time since the withdrawal of American troops in 2011.
    On another frontline, clashes broke out between Kurdish forces and Islamic militants in the Tuz Khurmato district, Salahuddin province, security forces at the area said.
    They said that the fighting that broke out before sunset on Friday (August 22) resulted in the deaths of six Islamic State militants and the burning of two of their vehicles.
    In a separate development, Islamic State militants shelled the al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood in Tuz Khurmato with mortars, hitting a house and wounding four civilians, a mother and her three daughters, according to police sources.
    They said that a search campaign was launched in the area resulting in the arrest of some 15 suspect militants and .seizure of weapons.
    Tuz Khurmato is around 170 km (100 miles) north of the capital Baghdad and lies in a territory which both the federal government and the autonomous Kurdistan region claim as theirs. Both are a target for Sunni Islamist insurgents.
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