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Iraqi Kurds Report on Fighting Islamic State

(National Post-Canada) Matthew Fisher - Kemal Kerkuki, former speaker of the Kurdistan Parliament, commands the fighting on the autonomous Iraqi region's southern front against Islamic State. Kurdish forces captured a strategic mountain ridge from Islamic State fighters last month in a lightning assault by infantry backed by heavy armor, moving the front line 17 km. to the west. In the area that the Islamists had controlled, Kurdish forces found "tons of captured C-4 explosives and fuel, and big anti-tank mines they had buried underground and in farmers' sheds," Kerkuki said. Also discovered as IS retreated were remote-control sniper rifles that used scopes whose imagery appeared on computer screens a safe distance from the guns so the shooters would not themselves get shot. Several tunnels were uncovered, including an elaborate, 170-meter-long one with concrete walls that ran directly under Kurdish lines. IS was using drones to spy on Kurdish positions, Kerkuki said.
2015-04-24 00:00:00
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