Their bodies were piled into a digger claw and onto the back of a pickup truck today in the strategic village of Sultan Abdullah, which extremists have targeted repeatedly in the past two months.

The bloody assault came just a day after U.S. officials revealed they are planning a 25,000-soldier invasion of Mosul - which was seized by Islamist militants last June - in as little as six weeks.

Photos taken today showed Kurdish forces, known as Peshmerga, amassing the bodies of Islamic State militants at their heavily-attacked headquarters in the village of Sultan Abdullah.

A spokesman for the Kurdistan Democratic Party's Foreign Relations Office told MailOnline: 'ISIS militants have attacked Peshmerga frontlines twice in the last three days in the heights of Sultan Abdulla and on the Makhmour front.

'In each case the militants were defeated, and repulsed in such a way they reportedly left behind 60 bodies.'

A statement on the Kurdistan Democratic Party's website today added at least 50 jihadis' bodies were found on just one front after last night's fighting.

'The terrorists [Islamic State] launched overnight attacks on our units in three areas', it said. 'The Peshmerga forces confronted them strongly and with extermination.

'This was the eighth attack by terrorists [of its kind], and each one has had worse luck than its predecessor.'

Mosul is the largest city in northern Iraq and has become one of the key strongholds for Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

Iraqi soldiers fled in June last year when the terrorists marauded through the country and seized Mosul, setting up a caliphate which enforces an extreme interpretation of Sunni Islam.

The U.S. is helping Iraq plan a massive offensive to recapture the city, which will involve up to 25,000 soldiers battling just 1,000 or 2,000 militants.

Iraq's soldiers are set to be joined by Peshmerga fighters and former Mosul police officers for the attack, which a U.S. government official said was planned for April or May.

The source told the Associated Press that forces wanted to retake Mosul in the spring, before the summer heat and the holiday month of Ramadan kick in. 

The plan comes after months of U.S. air strikes designed to cripple Islamic State.

(dailymail.co.uk)