Kurdish
forces in northern Iraq are claiming their biggest victory yet against Islamic State (IS) militants. They
say they have broken the IS siege of Mount Sinjar, where thousands of Yazidis
and other displaced Iraqis have been trapped since August. Continue..
IS
controls a swathe of Iraq and Syria, where it has declared a caliphate. Meanwhile,
the Pentagon's top officer says US air strikes have killed several high-ranking
military leaders of IS in Iraq.
The
Kurdish offensive against IS forces besieging Mount Sinjar began early on
Wednesday with the most intensive round of air strikes yet by US and coalition
forces - 45 in all.
On the ground, about
8,000 Kurdish peshmerga fighters launched a two-pronged attack which they said
had succeeded in opening a wide corridor to allow members of the Yazidi
minority and others to leave.
Masrur Barzani,
Chancellor of the Kurdistan Region Security Council, said the operation had
been to advance from Zumar - which Kurdish forces recaptured in October - to
Mount Sinjar and to rescue the Yazidi people trapped there.
"It was a very
big operation and thankfully it was concluded very successfully," he said.
Peshmerga commanders
said they expected the evacuation of those trapped on the mountain to begin on
Friday.
A statement from the
Kurdish command said large numbers of militant fighters had fled westwards into
Syria or eastwards towards Mosul, which they captured in June.
The peshmerga also
said eight villages had been recaptured and about 80 militants killed in the
offensive.
The BBC's Jim Muir
says that if the Kurds have done all they say, it is a significant advance.
But he adds that there
is still a long way to go - the town of Sinjar itself, to the south of the
mountain, remains in IS hands, as do Mosul and the nearby town of Tal Afar.
IS captured the town
of Sinjar in August forcing thousands of residents, mainly from the Yazidi
sect, to flee. Many were airlifted off the nearby mountain but thousands more
who came later found themselves trapped.
'High-value
targets'
The attack on Sinjar
was one of the reasons the US began air strikes against IS positions in Iraq in
August. It expanded its air campaign into Syria the following month.
Gen Martin Dempsey, chairman of
the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the air strikes that had killed the IS
leaders were designed to hamper the Islamist group's ability to conduct
attacks, supply fighters and finance operations.
Gen
Dempsey told the Wall Street Journal that the loss of IS leaders was
"disruptive to their planning and command and control".
He
added: "These are high-value targets, senior leadership."
Pentagon
officials said that between 3 and 9 December, US air strikes killed Abd
al-Basit, head of IS military operations in Iraq, and Haji Mutazz, a key aide
of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
They
added that in late November another strike killed Radwin Talib, IS governor of
the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
Other
defence officials said a number of senior and mid-level IS commanders had also
died in air strikes, and that they believed this was beginning to significantly
weaken the group's leadership structure.
Gen Martin Dempsey, chairman of
the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the air strikes that had killed the IS
leaders were designed to hamper the Islamist group's ability to conduct
attacks, supply fighters and finance operations.
Gen
Dempsey told the Wall Street Journal that the loss of IS leaders was
"disruptive to their planning and command and control".
He
added: "These are high-value targets, senior leadership."
Pentagon
officials said that between 3 and 9 December, US air strikes killed Abd
al-Basit, head of IS military operations in Iraq, and Haji Mutazz, a key aide
of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
They
added that in late November another strike killed Radwin Talib, IS governor of
the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
Other
defence officials said a number of senior and mid-level IS commanders had also
died in air strikes, and that they believed this was beginning to significantly
weaken the group's leadership structure.
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