(New York Times) Michael R. Gordon - Islamic State fighters conducted their most significant military operation in northern Iraq since July, mounting a three-pronged attack on Wednesday north and east of Mosul, American officials said Thursday. The assault was beaten back by American and allied airstrikes and fierce fighting by Kurdish peshmerga fighters. Dozens of Kurdish fighters were killed, according to Kurdish officials. In each of the assaults at Narwan, Bashiqa and Tal Aswad, 80 to 120 Islamic State fighters maneuvered in small formations and used armored bulldozers, trucks with mounted machine guns and vehicles driven by suicide bombers, said Brig. Gen. Mark Odom, the senior American officer in northern Iraq. "As attacks go, they were pretty significant."
2015-12-18 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive