29/09/2015. Chamchamal, Iraq. Hardi (L), Sarwar (C) and Zana, all volunteer peshmerga fighters, reload ammunition ahead of a peshmerga offensive at a comrade's house in Chamchamal, Iraq. Supported by coalition airstrikes around 3500 peshmerga of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) engaged in a large offensive to push Islamic State militants out of villages to the west of Kirkuk. During previous offensives ISIS fighters withdrew after sustained coalition air support, but this time in many places militants stayed and fought. The day would see the coalition conduct around 50 airstrikes helping the joint peshmerga force to advance to within a few kilometres of the ISIS stronghold of Hawija and re-take around 17 villages. Around 20 peshmerga lost their lives to improvised explosive devices left by the Islamic State, reports suggest that between 40 and 150 militants were killed.
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