Battle with IS kills senior Kurdish general, 8 of his troops

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By IMAD MATTI and SAMEER N. YACOUB

KIRKUK, Iraq (AP) — Clashes with Islamic State militants killed a senior Kurdish military commander and eight of his fighters just outside the disputed northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Friday, officials said.

Attacks elsewhere killed 27 people, with twin bombs hitting a crowded market in Baghdad and a suicide bomber targeting pro-government Shiite militiamen who were manning a checkpoint outside a city north of the Iraqi capital.

The casualties near the oil-rich Kirkuk were a heavy setback for the Iraqi Kurds, who have been at the forefront of the battle against the Islamic State group, which has captured a third of both Iraq and Syria in its blitz last year.

Also Friday, a car bomb exploded outside an empty, closed hotel near Kirkuk's police headquarters, wounding two people. Both the Kurdish troops and the city's security force have been trying to rout the IS group from Kirkuk, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad.

FULL story at link.



Security forces inspect the site of a twin bombing at a crowded market in Baghdad Iraq, Friday, Jan. 30, 2015. Police officials say the Friday morning attack started with a bomb exploding near carts selling used clothes in the city's central Bab al-Sharqi area. The second explosion, caused by a car bomb, went off two minutes later targeting people who rushed to help the victims from the first blast, killed and wounded more than a dozen of people, Iraqi officials said. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150130/ml--iraq-c93ed8d89a.html

[Fred Sanders]

1. That there is a ground war going on in the world without Americans is just so sad, for some folks.