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NINEVEH, Iraq, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Attacks by fighters with the Islamic State claimed the lives of nearly two dozen Kurdish soldiers in northern Iraq, including in a town nearly 40 miles from the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. The attacks come almost three weeks after Kurdish forces known as Peshmerga took control of large swaths of the town of Sinjar from IS forces and broke the group's siege of Mount Sinjar, freeing hundreds of trapped Yazidis who had fled earlier IS advances.
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At least 23 Peshmerga were killed and 12 injured in 24 hours of fighting with IS forces southeast of Nineveh, a city on the east bank of the Tigris River, opposite Mosul, sources told Al Jazeera on Saturday. IS used two car bombs against Peshmerga in the vicinity of the Sinjar Mountains while also making a sizable attack against Gwer, a strategic town less than 40 miles from Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
At least one coalition airstrike hit an IS tactical unit in Sinjar between Jan. 7 and Jan. 8, while others hit targets in Kirkuk, Fallujah, Tal Afar, Al Asad and Al Rutbah, U.S. Central Command reports.
The recent IS attacks follow a series of suicide bombings against Iraqi security forces manning checkpoints in Samarra on Jan. 8, killing two and injuring 28. A general with Iran's Revolutionary Guards, working to train Iraqi troops and Shia militia, was killed by a sniper in the same city late last month, and 11 Iraqi soldiers and Sunni militia were killed in battles with IS in Saladin Province and near Fallujah on Jan. 4.
Earlier this month Kurdish forces said they seized Sultan Abdallah, a strategic village 50 miles from Erbil, during house-to-house fighting with IS forces that killed three Peshmerga.
The fight between Kurdish forces and IS has swayed back and forth since last summer, when IS forces stormed into Iraq from Syria, prompting Peshmerga to defend Kurdistan as the Iraqi army crumbled and Western nations formed a coalition to bomb the extremist group.
