Iraqi Kurdish security forces on Thursday cut strategic supply lines between the stronghold of Islamic State (IS) militants in the town of Sinjar and other IS strongholds in Mosul and neighboring Syria, a Kurdish security source said. The town sits on Highway 47, which Green calls the main supply route that Islamic State fighters use “to ferry all sorts of weapons, fighters, food, illicit oil – everything they need”.
Advertisement
Hundreds of ISIS fighters are believed to be entrenched in Sinjar.
“There is an active firefight with ISIL terrorists in Gulat village in the East front”, the KRSC said in a statement.
According to Elias Ali, a few 20,000 fighters are taking part in the operation on the ground, including 7,500 Yezidis.
They said also that fighters were closing in on Sinjar from three fronts in an attempt to establish a buffer zone around the city to protect residents from incoming artillery.
Kurdish forces have found an offensive to take the Iraqi town of Sinjar back.
USA officials estimate that there are around 400 to 550 Islamic State militants in the town.
“Peshmerga forces totally purged Tal al-Shor and Hajji Fadel villages [25 kilometers in eastern Sinjar] and found the bodies of seven Daesh militants”, Sherzad Zakholi, a peshmerga captain, said. The airstrikes were part of more than 250 conducted over the past month in northern Iraq. General Seme Busal, a commander on one of the front lines, said.
Sinjar was captured by the Islamic State group in August 2014 shortly after the extremists seized Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, and blitzed across northern Iraq. Both are on the border with Syria. Despite repeated offensives against the route, the Islamic state group had managed to keep that supply line open since it captured Mosul in summer 2014.
“By controlling Highway 47… the Coalition intends to increase pressure on Da’ish and isolate their components from each other”, the statement said.
Before the push to retake Sinjar began, Kurdish fighters said they knew it wouldn’t be easy.
The U.S.-backed coalition Operation Inherent Resolve said “Operation Free Sinjar” was aimed at clearing ISIS from Sinjar and seizing portions of Highway 47.
The Iraqi offensive to retake Ramadi began in mid-July but moved slowly as Iraqi troops pushing into the city encountered tough ISIS defenses, particularly roadside bombs and mines planted on the approaches to the city.
Advertisement
The U.S.-led coalition has also given the peshmerga small arms, including machine guns, rifles and mortars, as well as ammunition, to help with the fight.
