Kurdish forces of the Peshmerga bombed ISIS positions in the Khazir district of Nineveh province in northwestern Iraq, and captured at least 12 villages on Monday.
Advertisement
Earlier in the day, a Kurdish security source told Xinhua that the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, backed by heavy artillery shelling and the US -led air strikes, launched an offensive at dawn against the IS positions on villages scattered in the northeast of Mosul. Clouds of black smoke could be seen at a distance, possibly tires or other items set on fire by the militants to obstruct the planes’ visibility.
Retaking Mosul would be an important symbolic victory as it was inside the city’s Grand Mosque that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdad declared a caliphate in Syria and Iraq. Currently, the metropolis is the largest population center under IS control with a pre-war population of almost 2 million people. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says its fall would mark the effective defeat of ISIL in the country.
The preparation for the offensive on Mosul “is approaching the final phase”, Brett McGurk, the U.
Along with the Kurds, Iraqi government forces are also moving in on Mosul from the south. Clashes are said to be on-going.
IS has been controlling Mosul, 400 km north of Baghdad, for around two years now.
The Kurdish military command issued a statement naming 10 villages it said its forces retook, and said the reconquered area covered 150 square kilometres (58 square miles).
The Peshmerga initiative is only part of many future operations set to increase pressure against ISIS in the Mosul area.
Advertisement
Iraqi Kurdish forces Sunday said they have recaptured six villages from Daesh, some 40 kilometres south-east of the extremist group’s stronghold of Mosul. He said the planning included considerations for humanitarian aid to uprooted civilians.
