KIRKUK: Iraqi Kurdish forces backed by air power retook three villages from militants northeast of Baghdad on Monday and also held off two assaults elsewhere, officials said.
Militants led by the Islamic State (IS) group overran large chunks of Iraq during a lightning offensive in June that swept security forces aside.
But Iraqi federal forces and the autonomous Kurdish region's peshmerga fighters are now fighting to regain ground from the militants on multiple fronts.
On Monday, Kurdish forces backed by Iraqi air support retook three villages in the Jalawla area in Diyala province, as well as a main road used by militants to transport fighters and supplies, a peshmerga brigadier general said.
He added that Kurdish troops are close to sealing off all entrances to the town of Jalawla itself, which they have sought to recapture for weeks.
Farther north, militants launched two assaults on the Turkmen-majority town of Tuz Khurmatu, late on Sunday and early Monday.
Both attacks were beaten back by Kurdish forces supported by Iraqi aircraft, officials said.
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