Attack blamed on IS in Iraqi Kurdistan kills three civilians, seven peshmerga fighters

At least three civilians and seven Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters have been killed in northern Iraq in an attack blamed on the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, the forces said on Friday.

The jihadists attacked the village of Khidir Jija, south of Erbil, late on Thursday, killing three civilians, a statement said.

The peshmerga, Kurdistan's armed forces, launched an operation in response, and seven fighters died when "an explosive device planted by IS elements" blew up.

The three civilians, siblings aged 11-24, were children of a village official, a relative told AFP.

IS seized swathes of Iraq in a lightning offensive in 2014, before being beaten back by a counter-insurgency campaign supported by a US-led military coalition.

The Iraqi government declared the Sunni extremists defeated in late 2017, but the jihadists retain sleeper cells which continue to strike security forces with hit-and-run attacks.

Five Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters were killed and four wounded in a roadside bombing blamed on jihadists of the Islamic State group...https://t.co/3if26kQfMk

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) November 28, 2021

Late last month, five Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters were killed and four wounded in a roadside bombing claimed by IS.

That bombing, south of the city of Sulaimaniyah, underlined the "serious threat" IS still poses to the Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, the region's prime minister Masrour Barzani said at the time.