1,600 Kurdish peshmerga killed in war on Daesh: spokesman

ARBIL: A total of 1,600 Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters have been killed since the Daesh (Islamic State) took over large parts of the country in June 2014, peshmerga officials said Thursday.

Peshmerga ministry spokesman Halgord Hekmat initially told AFP the figure applied to the offensive launched on October 17 to retake the militant stronghold of Mosul but later corrected himself.

Peshmerga ministry secretary-general Jabar Yawar confirmed the overall casualty figures since the start of the war with Daesh two and half years ago.

"Since the beginning of the war against Daesh, which means June 2014, until November 30 (2016), the total number of martyrs is 1,614 and the wounded are 9,515," he told AFP.