BAGHDAD — Western-backed Kurdish fighters freed seven villages from the clasps of the Daesh (the so-called IS) group in northern Iraq in recent days, the US-led coalition battling the militants said. Bolstered by coalition airstrikes, the Peshmerga fighters wrestled back more than 200 square kilometers near the town of Tuz since Aug. 26, the Combined Joint Task Force said. Planes and drones conducted a total of 25 strikes, helping the Kurdish forces in “liberating seven villages,” a statement said. Elsewhere in Iraq, the situation remains more static, a spokesman for the US military’s Central Command (Centcom) said. — AFP