ISIS Launches New Attacks in North Iraq

ISIS fighters launched a series of attacks against Peshmerga positions across northern Iraq on Monday, including a truck bomb that killed 15 Peshmerga fighters near the Mosul Dam and a firefight that killed three of the Kurdish soldiers near the town of Qarah Tapah. The extremists also were reported to be conducting a fresh assault on the Sinjar mountain range in northern Iraq in a bid to reach and destroy the Sharaf Al Deen shrine, which is sacred to Yazidis. The ISIS actions came as Turkey announced that it was helping Iraqi Kurdish fighters cross into Syria to support fellow Kurds battling ISIS in the key border town of Kobani. Ankara had resisted providing any help in the long-running battle for Kobani.