Stampeding wild boars kill ISIS fighters

A stampede of wild boars mauled to death three Islamic State militants waiting in ambush Sunday in Iraq, Kurdish fighters said Tuesday.

The mangled bodies were discovered by refugees fleeing territory controlled by the Islamic State about 50 miles southwest of Kirkuk, said Sheikh Anwar al-Assi, a chief of the local Ubaid tribe and supervisor of anti-Islamic State forces.

Islamic State fighters responded by going on a killing spree of the area's wild boars, said Brigadier Azad Jelal, the deputy head of the Kurdish intelligence service.

The militants were preparing an ambush of local tribesmen, al-Assi said. Five other militants were injured.

"It is likely their movement disturbed a herd of wild pigs, which inhabit the area as well as the nearby cornfields," he said.

Al-Assi said the militants executed 25 people attempting to flee three days before the boars attacked.

Anti-jihadist tribesmen retreated to the Hamrin mountains when militants seized the nearby town of Hawija in 2014.