IS kills two in attack on Iraqi Kurdish base

Iraqi forces enter Mosul to reclaim remaining Islamic State strongholds

KIRKUK, Iraq — Islamic State militants attacked a base near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk Sunday, killing two soldiers before U.S.-led forces launched a wave of airstrikes to repel the assault, officials said.

Maj. Gen. Hiwa Rash told The Associated Press two attackers blew themselves up at the entrance to the base, and the other three were killed in a shootout with Kurdish forces, aka peshmerga.

Three peshmerga forces were wounded in the assault, he added.

The Islamic State group claimed the attack.

Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the U.S.led coalition, said coalition troops are not permanently stationed at the base but were in the area when the attack occurred.

“Airstrikes were called in to help defeat the IS attack,” he said. “A number of aircraft responded and decimated the enemy.”

U.S.-backed Iraqi forces are slowly pushing the Islamic State from its remaining strongholds in the city of Mosul, further to the north, as a part of a massive operation launched this past October.

Iraqi forces pushed into the northwestern edge of Mosul on Sunday afternoon in the aftermath of last week’s renewed push to reclaim the city’s remaining Islamic State-held neighborhoods, according to Iraqi Col. Falah alWabdan. Wabdan said Iraq’s rapid response units led the advance.

The Islamic State has repeatedly targeted civilians and Iraqi forces in other areas of the country since the Mosul operation began, and is expected to favor insurgent-style attacks as it loses more territory.