ALEPPO, Syria
Iraqi Peshmerga forces have lost their first soldier in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo during clashes with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a senior Peshmerga official said Tuesday.
“Peshmerga Zerevan Ekrem Abdulmecid was killed by an ISIL sniper,” Jabbar Yawar, secretary-general of Ministry of Peshmerga affairs, told The Anadolu Agency.
The killed Peshmerga trooper was a health officer.
Zervan Ekrem Abdulmecid had arrived in the Syrian border town of Kobani via Turkey’s Sanliurfa province with the third group of Peshmerga fighters on Jan. 16.
Peshmerga troops have been fighting ISIL in Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, after militants captured a number of villages surrounding the Kurdish-populated city. Kobani comes under the Aleppo province.