Iraq’s Kurdish forces take 3 villages from ISIL

Iraqi Kurdish forces have retaken three villages from Takfiri ISIL militants northeast of the capital, Baghdad.

According to officials, Kurdish forces backed by Iraqi air power retook the villages in the Jalawla area in Diyala Province on Monday.

They also regained control of a main road used by the terrorists to transport militants and supplies, Peshmerga members said.

“Jalawla is strategic because it is a gateway to Baghdad,” Shirko Merwais, a senior Kurdish political party official in nearby Khanaqin said.

In the area, Iraqi aircraft are “carrying out air strikes and the Peshmerga… are fighting on the ground,” he said, adding that coordination between the Peshmerga and the Iraqi government “has become much better.”

Meanwhile, Kurdish forces supported by Iraqi aircraft also held off two assaults launched by ISIL Takfiris on the Shia Turkmen-majority town of Tuz Khurmatu.

Since early this year, Iraq has been facing a growing militancy by the Takfiri ISIL terror group and its allied militants, who have taken over areas in the country’s west and north. The crisis has deteriorated since June, when the ISIL declared a so-called caliphate in the territories they have seized.

The ISIL terrorists have threatened all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians, Izadi Kurds and others, in Iraq. They have been committing heinous crimes in the areas they have taken, including the mass execution of civilians as well as Iraqi army troops and officers.

The Iraqi army, backed by Kurdish forces and thousands of volunteers, is engaged in fierce fighting with the ISIL militants to push them out of the captured areas.