727 Kurdish fighters killed in fight against ISIL: Peshmerga

As many as 727 fighters belonging to Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region have been killed in the fight against the ISIL Takfiri militants since the outbreak of militancy in the Arab country in June, the Peshmerga forces say.

The Peshmerga forces made the remarks in a statement issued on Wednesday, adding that 3,564 fighters have also sustained injuries over the past six months.

The dead and wounded include “officers, non-commissioned officers, members of the Asayish (intelligence agency), of the police and some peshmerga veterans,” the statement added.

The statement further noted that 34 members of the Peshmerga are missing.

Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region has also sent its forces to the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobani to join fellow Kurds in defending the militant-besieged city. Kobani has been the scene of a bloody war between ISIL terrorists and Kurdish Peshmerga forces since mid-September.

Iraq has been fighting the ISIL terrorists since they took control of Mosul on June 10. The takeover was followed by the fall of the city of Tikrit, located 140 kilometers (87 miles) northwest of the capital, Baghdad. The control of Tikrit was later retaken by the Iraqi army.

The Takfiri terrorists currently control parts of eastern Syria and Iraq’s northern and western regions. They have threatened all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians and others, as they continue their atrocities in Iraq.

Senior Iraqi officials have blamed Saudi Arabia, Qatar and some other Persian Gulf Arab states for the growing terrorism in their country.