IS steps up counter-attacks as Mosul offensive enters second week

Islamic State (IS) expanded its attacks on Monday against Iraqi army and Kurdish forces to relieve pressure on its militants confronting an offensive on Mosul, its last major urban stronghold in the country. About 80 IS-held villages and towns have been retaken in the first week of the offensive, bringing the Iraqi and Kurdish forces […]

Islamic State (IS) expanded its attacks on Monday against Iraqi army and Kurdish forces to relieve pressure on its militants confronting an offensive on Mosul, its last major urban stronghold in the country.
About 80 IS-held villages and towns have been retaken in the first week of the offensive, bringing the Iraqi and Kurdish forces closer to the edge of the city itself – where the battle will be hardest fought.
In a series of counter-attacks on far-flung targets across Iraq since Friday, IS fighters have hit Kirkuk, the north’s main oil city, the town of Rutba that controls the road from Baghdad to Jordan and Syria, and Sinjar, a region west of Mosul inhabited by the persecuted Yazidi minority.
Yazidi provincial chief Mahma Xelil said at least 15 militants were killed in the two-hour battle in Sinjar and a number of their vehicles were destroyed, while the peshmerga suffered two wounded. Islamic State said two peshmerga vehicles were destroyed and all those on board were killed.