ISIS attack on Iraqi village kills 13

The deadly assault took place in the Makhmour region

Peshmerga fighters regularly clash with ISIS militants in the Makhmour area.

An attack by ISIS militants on a village in northern Iraq on Friday killed at least 13 people including three villagers and 10 Kurdish soldiers, officials in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region said.

The attack took place in the Makhmour region, a hotbed for ISIS activity and the scene of regular attacks against Kurdish forces, Iraqi forces and civilians.

Makhmour is a mountainous area about 70 kilometres south-east of Mosul and 60km south-west of the Kurdish capital of Erbil.

A statement from the Kurdistan region's armed forces, the Peshmerga, said ISIS attacked the village killing three residents and that Peshmerga forces intervened, resulting in clashes that killed 10 of their soldiers.

There was no immediate claim by ISIS for the attack.

ISIS controlled roughly a third of Iraq between 2014 and 2017, including the remote Makhmour region but also major cities such as Mosul.

A loose coalition of US-led forces, Iraqi and Kurdish troops and Iran-backed Shiite militias defeated the Sunni Muslim extremist group in 2017 but its members still roam areas of northern Iraq and north-eastern Syria.

Western military officials say at least 10,000 ISIS fighters remain in Iraq and Syria.