Peshmerga Retake Gwer; IS in Retreat in Nineveh

[RandySF]

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Peshmerga officials said this morning they have retaken the town of Gwer in an all-out assault, after two days of air strikes by US jets on Islamic State (IS/ISIS) positions.

Meanwhile, Kurdish military leaders said that on all fronts in Nineveh province the Islamists were in retreat, while in Kirkuk and northern Diyala their numbers and activities had dropped.

A Rudaw reporter returning from the frontlines quoted Peshmerga officers as saying that the Islamist armies were suffering from serious fuel shortages, hampering operations that rely mainly on vehicles and mobile units.

But on the Jalawla frontline in northern Diyala, Peshmerga commanders said their forces were locked in some of the fiercest fighting of the day since dawn, killing some 25 militants.

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/100820142

[xchrom]

1. interesting. nt

[NuclearDem]

2. Good.

[Kaleva]

3. I think IS made a strategic error in attacking the Kurds

The West would most likely refrained from getting actively involved had IS limited itself to killing Iraqi Shites and supporters of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria.

[flamingdem]

5. agree. I think that greed drove them to attack the Kurds

since they have great oil and gas wealth.

Plus, they're so macho they appear to want to involve the usa - they do have time on their side however.

[rollin74]

4. Excellent news indeed. K & R

hopefully these are the first of many gains by Kurdish forces against IS with continued US air support