According to the UN, 68% of Iraq's dead in July are civilians.
IRBIL, Iraq (AFP) - Islamic State fighters killed 16 Kurdish troops in attacks in northern Iraq, while 30 pro-government forces died battling the jihadists on other frontlines, officials said Saturday.
Islamic State fighters, who control Iraq's main northern city of Mosul, attacked a nearby dam and oil facility Friday but Kurdish peshmerga deployed in the area fought them off.
The jihadist fighters "attacked a peshmerga post in Zumar (Friday) and a fierce battle erupted," an official in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan told AFP.
He said 14 peshmerga fighters were killed there, a toll confirmed by a senior officer in the Kurdish force.
The PUK official said the peshmerga killed "around 100" IS fighters and captured 38 in a battle that lasted several hours. [...]
The United Nations' envoy in Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, expressed concern on Friday over the high number of civilians killed in the Iraqi conflict.
According to the UN, 1,186 of the 1,737 people killed in violence in July were civilians.
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