Iraqi, Kurdish forces retake village from IS

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Iraqi forces and Kurdish fighters recaptured a village in northern Iraq on Monday (December 6), after Islamic State militants took it over the previous day, according to sources.

However, sources said the militants have left some houses in Luhaiban village booby-trapped with explosive devices.

Footage from Iraqi Kurdish channel Rudaw showed Luhaiban residents bearing arms and walking through the village after a first Islamic State attack in the night between December 4 and 5.

In a separate attack on Sunday, Islamic State militants killed four Kurdish soldiers and a civilian, and wounded six others when they attacked Qara Salem village in northern Iraq.

The two villages are in remote territory claimed by the Iraqi government in Baghdad and the government of the autonomous northern Kurdish region in Erbil.

But it is a rare incident of Islamic State militants controlling a residential area near a main road.

Although IS has largely been defeated, it continues to carry out sporadic attacks and operate limited cells in the country, particularly in the north.