Peshmerga kill 6 ISIS commanders in Gwer fighting

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish forces killed six prominent Islamic State (ISIS) battle commanders in two days of fighting near the town of Gwer, Peshmerga officials said.

Sirwan Barzani, Peshmerga commander of the Gwer frontline, said that the ISIS leaders were among dozens of dead jihadis killed in battles.

He identified the dead ISIS commanders as Abu Mina, Huzaifa Almani (the German), Abu Hajar, Abu Zainab, Abu Hassan Ghazlani and Abu Ahmad.

A second Peshmerga source told Rudaw that Abu Hamza, an ISIS security official for Mosul, was also killed in the fighting in Gwer.

ISIS militants and Kurdish Peshmerga forces have been locked in intense fighting near the village of Sultan Abdullah, just days after the Kurdish forces repelled a major ISIS offensive on Gwer, less than 50 kilometers outside Erbil.

On Saturday, ISIS launched a surprise attack on the town and killed 24 security officers. The Peshmerga immediately reinforced troops, pushing out the militants and killing 38 fighters.