Iraq Feature: Scores Killed in Kurdish Town Attacked by “Islamic State and Its Leader al-Baghdadi”

Kurdish officials say peshmerga have repelled a major attack by the Islamic State, including its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (pictured), on the town of Gwer in northwest Iraq on Saturday morning.

“The ISIS attack was defeated and the militants all fled,” Sirwan Barzani, the peshmerga commander of the Gwer-Makhmour region, said. “The area is entirely under Peshmerga control.”

Barzani claimed, “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi himself led the attack at the Namirdu frontline but he returned humiliated.”

The commander, a billionaire who owns a major telecommunications firm and dozens more companies, did not reveal casualties. However, pro-Kurdish accounts on social media said 26 peshmerga and security personnel, as well as tens of Islamic State fighters, were killed.

Barzani said 160 fighters of the Islamic State targeted about 10 villages, including Sultan Abdullah and Tal Shaiir, captured by the peshmerga last month. Reports this morning say the jihadists are continuing to fight Kurdish forces in the villages of Xalid and Waadê.

The Islamic State briefly took Gwer in an August offensive before Kurdish forces, supported by US airpower, regained the town.