Battle of Zumar

On 31 August Kurdish Peshmerga troops entered Zumar. The Kurdish forces launched the offensive after capturing the Ain Zalah oilfields just outside Zumar two days earlier.^[7] IS fighters torched three oil wells as they retreated from Ain Zalah. The Peshmerga have been able to recapture several IS-controlled towns after receiving weaponry from the United States and other nations. As a result of the attack by Peshmerga forces on the Zumar, more than 92 IS militants have been killed and a further 160 taken to hospitals in Mosul with severe injuries.^[8] Kurdish forces were eventually forced to leave Zumar after enduring heavy losses.^[5]

Qassim al-Moussawi, a spokesman for the Iraqi military, said on 19 September 2014 that four French air strikes with Dassault Rafale fighter aircraft, had hit the town of Zumar, killing dozens of militants, AP news agency reported.^[9][10]

On 25 October 2014, Kurdish forces launched an offensive on the town. IS forces put up fierce resistance, and launched a car bomb attack on Peshmerga forces. Iraqi television said that 50 IS fighters were killed and 10 vehicles destroyed.^[11] After seventeen US airstrikes on the town, Kurdish forces took control of it. Their future goal is to regain control of nearby Sinjar, which was the scene of a massacre against Yazidi Kurds. The Daily Beast reported that American and German special forces were involved in coordinating airstrikes in Zumar; a report which The Pentagon denied.^[12]

• Spillover of the Syrian Civil War

36°39′27″N 42°36′23″E / 36.6575°N 42.6065°E / 36.6575; 42.6065