Peshmerga push back against IS threat to oil fields
A successful offensive Wednesday to the west of Kirkuk increases the buffer zone separating key oil infrastructure from IS militants.
Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters watch for Islamic State (IS) group fighters after they captured several villages on the outskirts of the northern Iraqi oil capital of Kirkuk on Sept. 30, 2015, during an operation with support from international coalition aircrafts. (MARWAN IBRAHIM/AFP/Getty Images)
TAL AWAD - Peshmerga forces backed by coalition air strikes seized territory southwest of Kirkuk on Wednesday in an offensive designed, at least in part, to mitigate the Islamic State (IS) militant group's ability to threaten key oil infrastructure.
"The main goal of this military operation is to push back the Daesh threat to oil and gas facilities to the southwest of Kirkuk," said one Peshmerga official involved in the offensive. "There was a direct threat by mortars and rocket attacks targeting the area."
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