Kurdish Forces Seriously Attacked IS Militants: 180 Are Killed

13:57     18 December, 2015

Kurdish forces backed by coalition air strikes have repulsed the most serious attack by Islamic State group in Iraq in five months, US officials say.

IS militants organized a co-ordinated attack on several locations near the northern city of Mosul on Wednesday.

According to US officials about 180 IS fighters were killed in the strikes that went on until Thursday morning.

Mosul has been under the control of IS since last year.

IS militants started to attack Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga positions late on Wednesday afternoon, using machine guns, car bombs, rockets and armoured bulldozers, BBC reports referring to Kurdish and US officials announcements.

"This was the hardest punch IS had thrown since this summer, and the Peshmerga defeated them," US military spokesman Col Steve Warren said, according to the Washington Post.