Kurdish forces announced a new push at dawn Sunday on Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul where some 10,000 fighters are engaged in a huge assault to take the IS-held town. The jihadists hit on Friday with a surprise assault on the Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk and two days later security forces were still tracking down fighters involved in the attack. At least 51 of the jihadists had been killed, including three more on Sunday, local security officials saiSporadic clashes continued, a senior security official said, with forces besieging IS gunmen in Kirkuk’s Nidaa neighbourhood. At least 46 people, most of them members of the security forces, were killed in the raid and ensuing clashes. A French government official told AFP the breach into Mosul, which could mark the beginning of a phase of fierce street battles with IS, could still be a month away.

Source: The Hindu October 23, 2016 18:33 UTC