Kurdish forces take control of Sinjar: Massoud Barzani
The president of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) says the northern town of Sinjar has been liberated following battles with the Takfiri Daesh terrorists over the city.
"The liberation of Sinjar will have a big impact on liberating Mosul," Massoud Barzani told reporters atop Mount Sinjar, overlooking the town, on Friday.
Kurdish Peshmerga forces entered Sinjar, situated over 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of the capital, Baghdad, from all directions.
Intense exchanges of gunfire are reported inside the town. The Peshmerga forces are engaged in battles to drive the remaining Daesh forces out of Sinjar, according to reports.
“ISIL defeated and on the run,” the Kurdistan regional security council said in a tweet, using an acronym for Daesh.
It said Peshmerga forces have secured several important facilities in Sinjar, namely a cement factory, hospital and a number of other public buildings.
Meanwhile, Iraqi security forces together with fighters from Popular Mobilization units have entered Ramadi, the provincial capital of Iraqi al-Anbar Province and another Daesh-held town, in a separate drive to defeat and flush out the terrorists.
Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, the spokesman for the Joint Operations Command, announced on Friday that Iraqi army troopers and Popular Mobilization fighters backed by the country’s air support launched a ground operation against Daesh Takfiris in Ramadi, situated about 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of Baghdad, from the north, west and southwest.
On Wednesday, the commander of the Burraq forces of the Popular Mobilization units, Wasiq Fartousi, told the Arabic-language al-Sumaria satellite television network that his forces together with Iraqi security personnel and tribal fighters had managed to seize complete control of the Albu-Hayat area in Haditha District, 160 kilometers (99 miles) west of Ramadi.
They killed 115 Daesh terrorists during the operation. Fartousi added that Arab nationals as well as citizens of a number of Western countries were among the slain Takfiris.
The northern and western parts of Iraq have been plagued by violence ever since Daesh began its terror activities through Iraqi territory in June 2014. Army soldiers and Popular Mobilization units have joined forces, and are seeking to take back militant-held regions in joint operations.
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