Iraq: Kurdish peshmerga forces break ISIS’s Mount Sinjar siege
Kurdish Peshmerga forces in fight with IS militants. Photo: Peshmerga sources/sm
Kurdish forces pressed their biggest offensive against the ISIS group so far on Friday, buoyed by US reports that militant supremo Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi’s top aide in Iraq has been killed.
Kurdish peshmerga forces were securing the surroundings of Mount Sinjar after breaking a months-old militant siege of the northwestern region while fighting was also reported near the city of Tall Afar further east.
The Pentagon said on Thursday that US strikes had killed several top leaders of the group that proclaimed a “caliphate” straddling Syria and Iraq six months ago and rose to be the world’s most feared militant organisation.
“I can confirm that since mid-November, targeted coalition air strikes successfully killed multiple senior and mid-level leaders,” spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said.