Kurdish "peshmerga" troops take part in an intensive security deployment against Islamic State militants, on the outskirts of the province of Nineveh, August 6, 2014. Islamic State militants extended their gains in northern Iraq on Thursday, seizing three more towns and gaining a foothold near the Kurdish region, witnesses said. The advance came after the Sunni militants inflicted a humiliating defeat on Kurdish forces in a weekend sweep in the north. The Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate in par

After taking Sinjar, IS draws Iraqi Kurds into full-scale war

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Kurdish "peshmerga" troops take part in an intensive security deployment against Islamic State militants, on the outskirts of the province of Nineveh, August 6, 2014. Islamic State militants extended their gains in northern Iraq on Thursday, seizing three more towns and gaining a foothold near the Kurdish region, witnesses said. The advance came after the Sunni militants inflicted a humiliating defeat on Kurdish forces in a weekend sweep in the north. The Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate in par

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