Sinjar lies outside Kurdish territory but is well beyond the reach of any other force fighting Isil in Iraq.
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Hol, previously a major stronghold for the Islamic State group before it captured Raqqa, is considered one of the most oil-rich areas held by the militants and is located along the same highway captured by Kurdish fighters in Sinjar.
“By seizing Sinjar, we’ll be able to cut that line of communication, which we believe will constrict (IS’s) ability to resupply themselves, and is a critical first step in the eventual liberation of Mosul, ‘ said Warren, referring to the jihadists” main hub in Iraq.
Hundreds of pick-up trucks and sport-utility vehicles carrying Kurdish fighters were seen gathering at the entrance to Sinjar earlier on Friday ahead of a planned push into the town centre.
But in establishing control over the Sinjar area, Barzani may also set the stage for conflict with other Kurdish groups in the area, and Yazidis who resent the peshmerga’s failure to protect them past year, analysts say.
A few 7,500 Peshmerga fighters, as well as 1,500 members of the rival Kurdish militia the PKK, descended from the centre, east and west side of the mountain to enter the town from all directions.
Speaking in Tunisia around the same time, US Secretary of State John Kerry said he was “absolutely confident” the town would be freed in the operation by Kurdish peshmerga backed by US-led air strikes and ground spotters.
Stripping the homes of their Arab neighbors whom they accuse of supporting the Islamic State, Yazidi residents of the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, recaptured from the militants last week, said it is little compensation for what they have lost.
“Again, I don’t want to lead you to think that this is going to be an easy fight”, Mr. Cook said.
Many Yazidis lost faith in Massoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party when its forces failed to protect them from IS previous year.
“And without doubt the liberation of Sinjar will have a big impact on liberating Mosul too”, he added.
The United Nations has already described the IS campaign against the Yazidis as a possible genocide.
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Peshmerga commander Khalaf Murad Atto said there were still IS suicide bombers in the town, while Yazidi fighter Rasho Murad said snipers and bombs remained a threat. “We promised and we keep our promises: We proved to our Yazidi brothers and sisters that all Kuridstan is behind them”, he said, while overlooking Sinjar. Since then, thousands of people in the minority Yazidi communty have been displaced; thousands more killed, and its women, including young girls, enslaved, brutally tortured and raped.
