ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Kurdish authorities said their forces, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, drove Islamic State militants from an 84 square kilometer (32 sq mile) area in northern Iraq over the weekend, widening a buffer around the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
The Kurdistan region's security council said in a statement at least 35 insurgents had been killed by its peshmerga forces in the offensive south of Kirkuk, which began on Saturday on two fronts.
The peshmerga have emerged as a key partner for the United States in its campaign against Islamic State. They have rolled it back in northern Iraq, significantly expanding the formal boundary of their autonomous region in the process.
The Kurds took full control of Kirkuk last summer as Islamic State overran the north of the country, and several divisions of the Iraqi army disintegrated. Kurdish leaders say they will never give up the ethnically mixed city, to which they, as well as Turkmen and Arabs, lay claim.
http://news.yahoo.com/iraqi-kurdish-forces-widen-buffer-around-oil-rich-203138918.html
