"Ealier this morning, some ISIS militants stormed Chirakh village in Dubiz, capturing five people and killing five others," Abdulla Nuraldin, Dubiz mayor, told Rudaw.
"Among the slain was the village's chieftain named Sinan Othman," he explained, adding that "two of the slain were brothers."
Upon their retreat, Nuraldin added "they laid booby traps and now the Asayesh [security] forces, [Kirkuk] Suburban Police and Peshmerga forces are disposing bombs in the area."
ISIS has lost complete control of Mosul and large swathes of territory in Iraq’s Nineveh province. Over the past few months, the extremist group has accelerated its attacks in Kirkuk region targeting Peshmerga positions and villagers.
The Kurdish leadership has repeatedly said the longer ISIS is allowed to control Hawija, a town west of Kirkuk, the more threat it poses to Kirkuk and its surroundings. Yet no timeframe has been announced to launch the long-awaited and delayed offensive to evict ISIS from Kirkuk province once and for all.
ISIS still enjoys a considerable amount of control over territory in northern Iraq despite major setbacks the group has recently suffered at the hands of Iraqi armed forces. The extremist group still holds Tal Afar west of Mosul, Ana, Qaim, Rawa, and segments of territories in Rutba, as well as the Qaim border crossing in Anbar, Rashad, Riyaz, some five hundred villages in Kirkuk, and a number of villages and areas in western Diyala province.
