Sun Aug 14, 2016 13:56:03
Kurdish peshmerga forces, assisted by US-led coalition airstrikes, launched an operation early Sunday against the Islamic State (ISIS / Daesh / ISIL / IS) terrorist group east of Mosul, Iraq.
Local news reports said that by mid-morning the forces had retaken four villages and destroyed two ISIS vehicles containing suicide bombs.
Footage filmed by Rudaw, a local television network, showed peshmerga forces in armored vehicles on the move.
The operation is a limited one, designed to relieve pressure on peshmerga positions in the Khazer area, just west of the capital, Irbil.
Mosul, Iraq’s second city, has been held by ISIS since 2014. Moves are now under way by Iraqi and Kurdish forces to encircle it.
Iraq’s leaders have repeatedly promised that Mosul will be retaken this year, though US officials have said that timeline is unrealistic.
About 43,000 people have been displaced from the Mosul area since March and 66,600 people from the nearby Shirgat area since June, according to the latest report by the UN Refugee Agency.
S/SH 11
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