About a two hour's drive northeast of Baghdad, in Diyala province, Kurdish pershmerga are pounding the town of Sadiyah.

They're trying to wrest back control of the town from Islamic State militants who captured Sadiyah more than a week ago.

They're bombarded the town from the high ground to the north -- while Iraqi government forces attack the town from the south.

The militants took control of villages and towns in Diyala in June...and then more territory in August.

The radical offshoot of al Qaeda has seized whole swaths of both Syria and Iraq, and vows to set up a Sunni Muslim caliphate with no regard for modern borders.

But now, their advance in areas southeast of Arbil has been disrupted - with the backing of US airstrikes -- which peshmerga Brigadier-General Sardar Anwar, says are welcome assistance.

(SOUNDBITE) (ARABIC) BRIGADIER-GENERAL SARDAR ANWAR, SAYING:

"The U.S. air strike helps us from the military point of view and it has an effe