Iraq: Kurdish peshmerga forces retake 7 Christian villages from Islamic State (IS) jihadists
Kurdish peshmerga forces on Tuesday recaptured seven Christian villages in northern Iraq in clashes with Islamic State (IS) jihadists, an officer and a cleric said.
Tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians, most of them Chaldeans, fled their homes when IS militants launched a renewed drive in the north in early August.
Iraq’s largest Christian town, Qaraqosh, and dozens of other villages were all but emptied in what Christian leaders described as the worst disaster for the minority in centuries.
Peshmerga forces ousted IS militants from four villages west of the Kurdish capital Arbil on Tuesday during fighting in which rockets and mortar rounds were used, a senior officer said.