By Ara News
Kurdish Peshmerga shelled an Islamic State (ISIS) headquarters on
Monday. Military sources reported that the barrage occurred near a
Christian town in Iraq’s northwestern Nineveh Governorate.
The Peshmerga employed heavy artillery, bombing ISIS redoubts in Bartilla town, east of Mosul city.
“The bombardment caused a massive destruction to the ISIS
headquarters in Bartilla. At least 16 ISIS terrorists were killed,”
Kurdish army officer Lukman Baker said.
After the attack, intense clashes took place between
Peshmerga forces and ISIS militants in the town’s vicinity. Two
Peshmerga fighters were killed and five others were injured.
Iraqi Kurdistan hosts thousands of Christian civilians who fled from
ISIS-held areas, notably Mosul. According to Baker, the Kurdish forces
are trying to liberate Bartilla and other similar areas from ISIS in
order to facilitate the return of the displaced civilians.
“Hundreds of Christians have been displaced from the town after ISIS
took over Mosul [in June 2014],” local media activist Hawar Duhoki told
ARA News. “The Peshmerga are trying to regain the town for its strategic
location at the eastern entrance of Mosul, in preparation for attacking
the city with support from the US-led coalition and the Iraqi Army.”