Iraq launches offensive against ISIS as Kurdish fighters say they're also coming under fire

A Kurdish peshmerga fighter.
(Image credit: Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty Images)

At the same time the Iraqi prime minister announced an offensive was underway to recapture a region close to the Syrian border from the Islamic State, Kurdish officials said its peshmerga fighters were being hit by artillery fired by Iraqi troops and Iran-backed militias.

Early Thursday, the Kurdistan Region Security Council said the Iraqi forces were northwest of Mosul, and in a statement, the council called on Iraq to withdraw from the area and asked the United States government to "stop Iraq's reckless behavior." Last month, Iraqi Kurds voted in favor of independence from Baghdad, and since then, Iraqi troops have pushed into oil-rich territories where the peshmerga drove out ISIS fighters.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.