EghtesadOnline: Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces said they captured nine villages held by Islamic State in an operation to degrade the militants' defenses east of Mosul, their last city stronghold in Iraq.

EghtesadOnline: Kurdish Peshmerga forces backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes launched a fresh attack on Islamic State militants in northern Iraq in the early hours of Sunday, as part of a plan to close in on their de facto capital Mosul, a Kurdish official said.