KIRKUK, Kurdistan region ‘Iraq’,— On the second day of fighting with Islamist militants south of Kirkuk Peshmerga commander, Major General Hussein Mansour was killed Saturday near the village of Mala Abdullah. Report ekurd
Brigadier Sarhad Qadir, chief of Kirkuk suburban police told Rudaw that Maj.-Gen. Mansour was killed by an Islamic State group IS sniper.
Maj.-Gen. Mansour was the commander of the 2nd combat support units in the Kirkuk region.
According to Brig. Qadir, he was killed when a large force of Peshmerga and anti-terror squad launched an attack against IS positions in Mala Abdullah and several nearby villages.
On Friday Brigadier General Sherko Fatih Shwani and five other members of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces were killed and 46 more were wounded in the fighting, a police brigadier general and a doctor said, but the final casualty figure for Kurdish troops was unclear.
Shwani, the commander of the 1st Peshmerga Brigade, was killed when IS fighters attacked Kurdish positions with car bombs and suicide bombers, triggering fierce clashes.
The bodies of 15 IS militants were found in the village as the Peshmerga took control, said Brig. Qadir.
Kurdish forces have been locked in heavy battle with IS militants for the past 48 hours south of Kirkuk where on Friday Brigadier Sherko Shwani and eight Peshmerga soldiers were killed.
The Peshmerga forces and police retook an oil field in Kirkuk province Saturday that was seized by the Islamic State group overnight, and freed 24 workers who had been taken captive, officers said.
“Peshmerga forces and police cleared the Khubbaz (oil) field a little while ago and were able to enter it after surrounding it for hours,” police Brigadier General Sarhad Qader said of the fighting, adding that they also retook eight villages.