Exclusive: Iraqi troops surrender after attacking Kurdish village

The Iraqi army's second battalion moved on the checkpoint at 11am, attacking the Peshmerga's 14th Unit, which lead to heavy fighting between the two sides.

Five Peshmerga soldiers and ten members of the Iran-backed Popular Mobilisation Force, an umbrella of militias fighting alongside the Iraqi army, were killed. Kurdish news channel, K24 reported at least eight Iraqi soldiers as dead. More than 25 others were injured.

At least 15 Iraqi soldiers were captured by Peshmerga, as well as five Hummers and two armoured vehicles, a Peshmerga intelligence officer told The New Arab.

Read more: Behind the story: On the Kurdish frontlines

After Kurdish forces disabled several vehicles, the PMF stopped the offensive and returned to their front. 

A video posted on social media shows what transpired after several Iraqi troops surrendered.

Facebook Post

It purports to show injured and healthy Iraqi troops alike being loaded back onto their vehicle and sent back to their own front lines.

"Look what we did to them," a Peshmerga officer says, as his soldiers put Iraqi soldiers in the back of their own truck.

"We are not like [the Islamic State group], we are not like the PMF, we have human rights.

"You can see how strong Peshmerga is. We beat them badly."

Peshmerga forces took control of an Iraqi flag, according to Erbil-based news channel Kurdistan 24, promising to keep it safe in an effort to change the narrative between the two clashing governments.

As the news spread throughout Iraq and Kurdistan, the PMF was reported to have bombed Tesqopa, an Assyrian and Kurdish town north of Mosul, wounding several civilians.

Baghdad-aligned fighters who surrendered to Peshmerga were returned to their camps, Kurdish cources said [Erbil Governorate social media]