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The assault began
overnight south of Daquq, a town about 175 km (108 miles) north
of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. The front line between the
regional Kurdish peshmerga forces and Islamic State in northern
Iraq has hardly budged for months.
The Kurds already control most of the territory they claim as
their own, and have little incentive to push further into
predominantly Sunni Muslim Arab towns and villages.
By mid-morning, Islamic State militants had been routed from the
village of Albu Najm, according to a source within the peshmerga
forces. Fighting continued in another village nearby, he said.
A Kurdish officer with the rank of captain was killed by an
improvised explosive device, a source in the Kirkuk morgue said.
The peshmerga have emerged as an important partner for the
United States in its aerial campaign against Islamic State.
They have pushed back the ultra-radical Sunni insurgents in
northern Iraq, effectively expanding the area of their
autonomous region in the process. Large parts of Kirkuk province
remain in Islamic State hands.
(Reporting by Isabel Coles; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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