Kurdish Peshmerga forces Thursday took control of a series of villages from Islamic State militants in northern Iraq in a major push against the radical group, Kurdish military said.
The Peshmerga of Iraq’s autonomous region of Kurdistan recaptured from jihadists seven villages near the strategic Mosul Dam, which the Kurdish troops had retaken from the Islamic State in mid-August.
The dam, Iraq’s largest, is located on the Tigris River, which flows through the capital Baghdad.
The Peshmerga Thursday forced militants to retreat from an oil complex near the rebel-held northern city of Mosul, the state-run Northern Oil Company said.
Before withdrawal, the extremists torched the Ain Zala oilfield and other facilitis to block the Peshmerga’s advance on the neighbouring town of Zumar still held by rebels, Kurdish military said.
The Islamic State has seized several oilfields in northern Iraq where it has made considerable territorial gains since June.
The radical group uses revenues from illegal oil sales to fund its activities.
The Kurdish forces reportedly pushed deep into a cluster of small villages in the vicinity of Zumar on Thursday.
After having suffered setbacks at the hands of the Islamic State early this month, the Peshmerga, backed by US airstrikes, have been able to regain several areas from the al-Qaeda splinter group in the past two weeks.
Meanwhile, at least 29 militants were killed Thursday in an attack by Iraqi government troops near the rebel-held town of Amerli, an Iraqi army commander said.
Iraqi military troops, backed by warplanes, launched a “major security operation” to end the Islamic State’s blockade of Amerli, General Abdel-Amir Reda said.
For almost two months, the Sunni jihadists have been besieging the mostly Shiite Turkmen town of Amerli, around 170 kilometres north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
The Islamic State’s territorial expansion in Iraq and neighbouring Syria has prompted several countries to offer arms and military equipment to Kurdish forces battling the militants in northern Iraq.
The German army has sent six soldiers to northern Iraq to coordinate German civilian and military aid packages.
The non-combat unit started Wednesday its mission at the general consulate in Erbil, the capital city of Iraq’s autonomous region of Kurdistan, the army said.
The German government has said it will provide arms to Kurdish forces, although Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly said no combat troops would be sent to Iraq.
The soldiers are to assist in the delivery of packages consisting of civilian and military supplies in coordination with the Iraqi government and Kurdish local authorities.
In late June, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared himself the ruler of a caliphate in the territory under his group’s control in Syria and Iraq, raising fears of the emergence of a regional militant enclave.
GNA
PDC
