Peshmerga fighter killed in armed attack outside house in Erbil

Erbil (IraqiNews.com) – A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter was killed Sunday in an armed attack outside his house in Erbil, the capital city of Iraqi Kurdistan, a security source was quoted as saying.

“Unidentified gunmen opened fire at a Peshmerga fighter outside his house in Erbil district in Kurdistan,” Baghdad Today website quoted a security source as saying.

“Investigations were launched into the incident,” the source said, adding that the perpetrators of the armed attack fled the scene into an unknown location.

Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.

The surge in violence between armed groups and government forces has resulted in over five million internally displaced persons across Iraq and left more than 11 million in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.