Islamic State ‘kills 18’ in counter-offensive in Iraq

Smoke billows from an area near the Iraqi town of Nawaran, some 10km north east of Mosul, as Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters march down a dirt road on October 20th, 2016, during the ongoing operation to retake the city from the Islamic State group. The operation is Iraq’s biggest in years and aims to wrest back Mosul, the country’s second city and the last major Islamic State stronghold in Iraq. Photograph: Safin Hamedsafin/AFP/Getty Images