Kurd troops attack Iraq jihadists on three fronts

Kurdish troops backed by warplanes battled the Islamic State group on three fronts in northern Iraq Tuesday, clawing back land lost to the jihadists in recent months. The peshmerga struck before dawn against the town of Rabia on the Syrian border, north of the jihadist-controlled second city Mosul, and south of key oil hub Kirkuk, officers said.
A senior peshmerga source said troops had entered Rabia, after seizing the villages of As-Saudiyah and Mahmudiyah. "Ground troops are in the centre of Rabia," about 100 kilometres (60 miles) north-west of Mosul. One officer said the town was under full peshmerga control but a leader of the Sunni Shammar tribe fighting alongside them said there were still pockets of resistance.
Peshmerga forces, backed by artillery and warplanes, also attacked Zumar, about 60 kilometres north-west of the city, near the reservoir of Iraq's largest dam, which has been a key battleground between the Kurds and jihadists. "We have ousted IS from 30 positions, including in the Zumar and Rabia areas," spokesman Halgord Hekmat said.