Five Kurdish troops killed in jihadist attack

Islamic State fighters launched an attack against Kurdish troops from the flashpoint town of Jalawla in eastern Iraq, killing five peshmerga, security sources said.
"IS attacked several peshmerga defensive positions around five kilometres (three miles) outside of Jalawla," a senior peshmerga officer said yesterday.
"Five peshmerga were killed in the clashes," he said.
Another peshmerga officer gave the same death toll and said that while the jihadists had pushed deeper towards Kurdish areas, they were still far from the city of Khanaqin.
The towns are about 20 kilometres away.
"IS tried to advance towards Khanaqin after gathering lots of forces in Jalawla," a military source in Iraq's Diyala province said.

Khanaqin is under Kurdish control and lies only five kilometres from Iran. It also lies on a rare road link between Baghdad and the autonomous region of Kurdistan.
The jihadists seized Jalawla from the peshmerga on August 11.