Major IS counter-attacks foreshadow new insurgency
Even as they lose ground around Mosul, IS militants showed their capacity for guerilla warfare, deploying 100-man squads to exploit security gaps in Kirkuk and Anbar.
Kirkuk police and Peshmerga forces conduct search and raid operations in the Jrada-Ogolo village south of Kirkuk city on Oct. 23, 2016, in an effort to capture some of the Islamic State militants who had recently launched a deadly attack. (STAFF/Iraq Oil Report)
KIRKUK - Two major assaults by militants from the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) over the weekend highlighted the group's undiminished capacity to wage a catastrophic insurgency even as it loses ground in a conventional war for control of Mosul.
The attacks, one in Kirkuk and the other in Rutba, in Anbar province, killed more than 100 people and exposed Iraq's inability to adequately defend government-held territory while also devoting roughly 25,000 troops - including many of the most capable units - to a major offensive in Ninewa province.
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