Iraqi Kurds Recapture Key Village from ISIL

Kurdish Pishmarga forces announced that they have recaptured a strategic village in Northern Iraq from the ISIL terrorists’ occupation.
Sources told Al Jazeera on Friday that at least three Pishmarga fighters died when the group captured the village of Sultan Abd’Allah, just 60km away from the Kurdish regional capital, Erbil.

The agency went on to say that the Pishmarga fighters had engaged in house-to-house battles with the ISIL fighters in the village, demonstrating the lengths to which the group had to go in countering the ISIL.

“One commander said the group had limited firepower, and were fighting with old AK-47s and that their other weapons were from the Iran-Iraq war 25 years ago,” our correspondent said.

Sultan Abdollah is on the banks of the Tigris River, and a highway to Mosul passes through the village.

The Kurds are determined to keep hold of the village, because losing it would mean opening up Erbil to a possible ISIL invasion.

Early in June, the terrorist group of ISIL started massive attacks against military bases in Northern, Western and Central provinces of Iraq.

The ISIL occupied Mosul and Tikrit during the first days of its operations, but later the Iraqi Army, Kurdish Pishmarga, and popular forces from both Sunni and Shiite tribes repelled the ISIL attacks in heavy clashes.

At the end of 2014, the ISIL terrorists lost the battles against the Iraqi army and Pishmarga in so many fronts.

Iraqi army and Pishmarga are preparing to liberate the two captured cities of Mosul and Tikrit.