IS fighters breach peshmerga defenses, briefly take over town in IraqMay 3, 2016 - 17:50 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Islamic State militants attacked Kurdish peshmerga forces on multiple fronts in northern Iraq on Tuesday, May 3, breaching their defenses and briefly taking over a town, military sources said, according to Reuters. The attacks around the northern city of Mosul are the largest against Kurdish forces in recent months by the insurgents, who have been losing ground to an array of forces in the north and west of the country. The head of a Christian militia said the insurgents had overrun their positions at dawn around the town of Tel Asqof, 20 km north of Mosul, and occupied it until being beaten back with the help of air strikes from a U.S.-led coalition. "There were many suicide bombers and suicide car bombs," said Safa Eliyas, the head of the Nineveh Protection Forces, which are deployed alongside the peshmerga in the area. There were also attacks on the Bashiqa front and in the Khazer area, about 40 km west of the Kurdish regional capital Erbil, Reuters says. Since the United States intervened to blunt Islamic State's advance on Erbil in August 2014, the peshmerga have driven the militants back in the north. The militants are rarely able to penetrate Kurdish defenses. Peshmerga Secretary General Jabbar Yawar said details of the offensives were still unclear, but they constituted the biggest attacks in recent months. "The battles are ongoing," he said. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |