ISIS launched several waves of attacks in northern Iraq late Tuesday, engaging in close-quarters combat with Kurdish forces before being repelled by reinforcements and airstrikes, Kurdish and Iraqi security sources told NBC News.
The jihadis attacked from several directions near the towns of Gewr and Makhmour, southwest of Erbil, the sources said.
A senior Iraqi security official said "tens" of ISIS fighters were killed and injured and some of their vehicles were destroyed during an hours-long battle that finally ended at 4 a.m. Wednesday (8 p.m. ET Tuesday).
Kurdish security sources said they had also suffered an unspecified number of causalities.
This story originally appeared on NBC News