US Claims 180 ISIS Fighters Killed in Northern Iraq Airstrikes

Calls Incident First 'Serious' ISIS Attack in Months

A 17-hour ISIS offensive launched Wednesday night in Iraq’s Nineveh Province continued into Thursday, and now US and Iraqi officials are claiming that the attack has been repelled. The US claims to have killed at least 180 of the ISIS fighters in airstrikes and also claimed the Peshmerga killed “hundreds more.

The attack began against a Kurdish base in the area, killing seven Peshmerga fighters and wounding four Turkish troops. The Peshmerga quickly scrambled forces to defend the area, though it isn’t clear if ISIS was even attempting to capture any territory.

US Gen. Mark Odom said he believes ISIS was trying to disrupt attempts to encircle Mosul rather than capture anything in the operation, calling it the first “serious” ISIS attack in northern Iraq since early July.

ISIS hasn’t issued any assessment of the offensive on their own, and there has been no update on the casualties among Kurdish forces, though it’s hard to imagine they killed “hundreds” of ISIS fighters engaged in a surprise attack on three different sites without suffering more casualties than just the seven in the initial missile strike.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.