Battle of Pirde

The Battle of Pirde was a military confrontation between the Peshmerga and the Iraqi Army in the 2017 Iraqi–Kurdish conflict. It was the first military confrontation between both sides since the Iraq War.

Battle of Pirde
Part of Battle of Kirkuk (2017)
Date 20 October 2017 Location Altun Kupri, Iraq Result Kurdish victory
Belligerents
Kurdistan Region	Iraq
Commanders and leaders
Masoud Barzani Sirwan Barzani Jamal Kirkuki Husein Yazdanpanah	Haider al-Abadi (Commander-in-chief) Maj. Gen. Fadhil al-Barwari (ISOF commander)
Units involved
Peshmerga Parti Azadi Kurdistan
Strength
unknown	12,000+
Casualties and losses
unknown	12 Humvees, 1 M1A1 Abrams, 1 T-72

Background

The battle first started when Hashd al-Shaabi soldiers captured Kirkuk and made an attempt at capturing Erbil.

The battle

The fighting began at 7:00 in the morning on the Erbil-to-Kirkuk road near the village of Pirde, when Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service began to mortar Kurdish units. An apparent 81-millimeter mortar exploded not far from a group of Kurdish generals standing outside a command post.