File photo of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters (Associated Press)
Kirkuk:
Warplanes carried out an air strike on positions controlled by the jihadist Islamic State group (IS) that is fighting Kurds in northern Iraq, officials said on Wednesday.
"The US air strike struck an IS position in Dibis and resulted in many militants being killed and wounded," Khaled Shwani, an official with Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), told AFP.
He said the strike was carried out around midnight but there was no immediate confirmation from the Pentagon of any raids in the area of Dibis, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) northwest of the city of Kirkuk.
The oil-rich region of Dibis is a front line area where Iraqi and other Kurdish forces have been battling the IS fighters who took over the Nineveh plain in early August.
A government official in the nearby city of Hawija also said that the strikes had killed IS fighters but could not say how many.
A security source in the region told AFP that 21 IS fighters were killed in the strike.
US aircraft have carried out more than 190 air strikes against the jihadist group in Iraq since August 8. Most of them were in northern Iraq, in support of Kurdish forces.
The United States and its Arab allies also unleashed deadly air strikes against the jihadists in neighbouring Syria this week.
"The US air strike struck an IS position in Dibis and resulted in many militants being killed and wounded," Khaled Shwani, an official with Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), told AFP.
He said the strike was carried out around midnight but there was no immediate confirmation from the Pentagon of any raids in the area of Dibis, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) northwest of the city of Kirkuk.
The oil-rich region of Dibis is a front line area where Iraqi and other Kurdish forces have been battling the IS fighters who took over the Nineveh plain in early August.
A government official in the nearby city of Hawija also said that the strikes had killed IS fighters but could not say how many.
A security source in the region told AFP that 21 IS fighters were killed in the strike.
US aircraft have carried out more than 190 air strikes against the jihadist group in Iraq since August 8. Most of them were in northern Iraq, in support of Kurdish forces.
The United States and its Arab allies also unleashed deadly air strikes against the jihadists in neighbouring Syria this week.
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