President Barzani says IS planned an assault on Peshmerga on Kurdish Flag Day

Kurdistan region President Massoud Barzani said that the terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS) had planned attacking Peshmerga defence bases for over a month and specifically intended on launching an assault on Kurdish Flag Day.

“The terrorists' attack is counted as their biggest and they had planned it for a month, but the brave Peshmerga defeated ISIS on all fronts,” Mr Barzani said in a statement on Saturday.

Mr Barzani said it was the extremist group's plan to bring down the flag of Kurdistan "from the lion's den," after IS launched their biggest offensives against the Peshmerga in recent months on Wednesday, which led to two days of fierce fighting from Makhmour to Mosul, and resulted in more than 80 militants killed.

While praising the Peshmerga for their courageous and brave defence of the people and their land, Mr Barzani also sent his condolences to the families of those killed in last week's clashes, where several Kurdish soldiers and two officers lost their lives to a sequence of IS  suicide bombers.

Mr Barzani added, “I am saddened by the martyrdom of a group of brave Peshmerga and it was a big loss to us all.”