A herd of stampeding wild boars killed three Islamic State terrorists in a fiercely contested area of Northern Iraq, according to local sources.

The Times of London reports that a group of Islamic State jihadists was preparing an ambush in a field 50 miles from the Iraqi city of Kirkuk before being overwhelmed by a stampeding herd of wild boars, killing three terrorists and leaving five seriously injured.

Sheikh Anwar al-Assi, chief of the local Ubaid tribe organizing anti-ISIS forces, told The Times that some militants had escaped death by managing to hide in large areas of reeds, but others had not been so lucky.

“It is likely their movement disturbed a herd of wild pigs, which inhabit the area as well as the nearby cornfields,” he said. “The area is dense with reeds, which are good for hiding in.”

A group of refugees fleeing the region discovered the bodies. According to deputy head of the Kurdish intelligence service Brigadier Azad Jelal, jihadists in the area responded to the incident by going on a killing spree of the area’s wild boars.

Anwar al-Assi also revealed that the incident happened shortly after the militants had slaughtered 25 people to death in Hawija, one of the few districts the Islamic State still controls, and a site where they regularly carry out mass killings. In August last year, the group massacred 85 civilians in Hawija as an apparent show of strength.

Mosul, the country’s second-largest city, remains the last major Islamic State stronghold in Iraq, as Kurdish forces fight to reclaim it.

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