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By Mirren Gidda
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Kurdish Peshmerga troops pushed into Sinjar "from all directions" Friday to rid the northern Iraqi town of the remaining Islamic State (ISIS) militants, according to a tweet from the Kurdish Regional Security Council (KRSC).
The operation began Wednesday with U.S.-led coalition airstrikes targeting ISIS positions in the town, according to the KRSC. Backed by the strikes, Kurdish troops were able to cut off Sinjar from the east and the west Thursday.
The 7,500 Peshmerga fighters and the coalition forces, are hoping that by pushing ISIS out of Sinjar, they will be able to cut off a strategic supply route between the ISIS-held cities of Mosul, in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Kurdish troops currently control the highway leading in and out of Sinjar.
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In August 2014, ISIS militants massacred and kidnapped thousands of people from the non-Muslim Yazidi sect in Sinjar and the surrounding villages and trapped thousands more on the nearby Mount Sinjar. In the same month, the U.S. began its first airstrikes against ISIS positions in Iraq.
The Islamist militant group was driven from the mountain on December 2014 and Kurdish forces are now hoping to regain the rest of the town, according to the BBC. Though operations are ongoing, the KRSC has tweeted that its troops currently hold Sinjar's "cement factory, hospital and several public buildings." It added that ISIS fighters are fleeing the town. The Kurdish government said there were close to 600 ISIS fighters in Sinjar before operations began. According to the U.S.-led coalition, up to 70 may have been killed in Thursday's strikes.
Western countries are currently carrying out airstrikes targeting ISIS in both Syria and Iraq. In August, Russia began its own strikes in the regions aimed at ISIS and various other rebel groups who are seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who Russia supports. Human rights groups have voiced concerns that Russian airstrikes have killed civilians.
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