33 IS militants killed in Iraq's Mosul

Mosul (Iraq), Nov 24 (IANS/EFE) At least 33 militants of the Islamic State (IS) Sunni radical group have died Monday in the Iraqi city of Mosul and the surrounding area, including a leader who was responsible for the sale of kidnapped Yazidi women.

A spokesman for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Ghayath al-Surji, told Efe news agency that 20 jihadis were killed early Monday in clashes with the Peshmerga Kurdish forces in Ba'shiqah Mountain, 14 km northeast of Mosul.

The fighting lasted over four hours and was triggered after IS members attacked a Peshmerga position, according to al-Surji, who did not specify whether the Kurdish forces suffered casualties.

After these clashes, international coalition aircraft hit IS posts in Ba'shiqah, where large plumes of smoke rose in the air, but there was no immediate report of casualties.

Meanwhile, the bodies of 13 jihadis were transferred Monday to the morgue in Mosul, a source at the forensic centre told Efe.

One of the dead was identified as Mostafa Qerbash, nicknamed Abu Hosam, who was killed in fighting in Tel Afer, according to a statement the group posted on the internet.

Qerbash was one of the leaders of the IS and was responsible for selling women from the Yazidi minority to other members of the jihadi group.

Human Rights Watch reported in October that the IS holds hundreds of Yazidis as hostages in Iraq, many of them forced to convert to Islam and the women forced to marry jihadis.

Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, fell into the hands of the IS in June when the jihadis launched an offensive in northern Iraq and proclaimed a caliphate in the country and in neighbouring Syria.

--IANS/EFE

ab/dg