Kurds plan counter-offensive against Islamic State -Kurdish officials

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Kurdish peshmerga forces are planning a counter-offensive against Islamic State fighters in northern Iraq after being routed by the radical Sunni insurgents on Sunday, senior Kurdish officials said on Monday. One of the officials told Reuters the Kurds had been overstretched in a vast region but were now calling in a large number of fighters to hit back. "It is a very dangerous situation for the region. Something needs to be done soon." The Islamic State inflicted its first major defeat on the Kurds with a dramatic advance through three towns to reach the Mosul Dam, acquiring a fifth oil field to fund its operations along the way. State television and witnesses said on Sunday that the Islamic State had seized Iraq's biggest dam. Kurdish peshmerga officials said they have pushed Islamic State militants from the Dam area. This could not be immediately confirmed. One peshmerga colonel who said the Kurdish withdrawal was tactical forecast that several Kurdish brigades would take back all territory lost on Sunday and even win back Mosul, Iraq's biggest northern city. "We will attack them until they are completely destroyed we will never show any mercy," he said. "We have given them enough chance and we will even take Mosul back. I believe within the next 48-72 hours it will be over." (Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Mark Heinrich)