Kurdish make advances against ISIL near Mosul

Iraqi Kurdish forces are tightening the noose around the Takfiri groups in the ISIL-held city of Mosul, clearing the way for a major operation against the terrorists.

In one of their latest attacks on the Takfiri militants, the Peshmerga forces managed to drive out the terrorists from areas north of the Iraqi flashpoint city of Mosul.

According to the US military command, the Kurdish forces received aerial support from the US-led coalition, purportedly fighting against the Takfiris, during the attack.

“Security forces from the Kurdish region seized three bridgeheads on the west bank of the Tigris River, north of Mosul in formerly held Daesh (IS) areas," the US military command said in a statement which was released on Monday.

"Kurdish peshmerga forces now hold the gains they have made and are postured to retake additional territory from Daesh in the vicinity of Mosul,” the statement added.

The gains in the areas around Mosul are believed to have paved the way for Iraqi troops to launch a ground military attack on the terrorists.

John Allen, the US coordinator for the so-called US-led coalition against ISIL militants, in an interview with Jordan's official Petra news agency on Sunday said that Iraqi military forces will launch a major ground offensive against the ISIL Takfiri militants "in the weeks ahead" to take back parts of the country captured by the terrorists.

"There will be a major counter offensive on the ground in Iraq," he said, adding, “When the Iraqi forces begin the ground campaign to take back Iraq, the coalition will provide major firepower associated with that," Allen added, emphasizing that the Iraqis would lead the operation.

A US Central Command official told CNN on Saturday that  as soon as April the Iraqi forces would make their first move against the militants in Mosul, some 400 kilometers north of the capital Baghdad.

The Iraqi forces may need US help in locating military targets if ISIL defenses reach a significant level, he said, adding, the Pentagon and Central Command may then recommend President Barack Obama consider US ground involvement.

The US started airstrikes against what they say are ISIL targets in Iraq in August last year. A US-led coalition also began its military campaign in Syria in September 2014.

Washington says it is carrying out air strikes against the ISIL positions in both Iraq and Syria, but there is skepticism on both sides of the border about the real objective of the strikes.

Peshmerga’s advance in Kirkuk

The Peshmerga forces also made advances in south and southwest of Kirkuk by recapturing several villages. The Kurdish troops drove the ISIL militants out of Maktab Khaled, Mulla Abdullah, Tal Ward, Meryam Beg and a number of other villages south of the city.

The Takfiri militants had “armored vehicles, rocket launchers, and tanks,” a Kurdish fighter said, adding that they fought with a large number of militants.

The fighter said that the Kurdish troops also “managed to retake all their posts” after confrontations in the villages.

 ISIL execution in Mosul

In a separate incident in Mosul, the Takfiris staged another gruesome act of execution by killing Iraqi officers.

According to a local source in Iraq’s Nineveh Province, a firing squad of the ISIL terrorists killed five Iraqi officers at al-Ghazlani military base in central Mosul.

The source added that the officers had been taken into ISIL custody in June 2014.

ISIL started its campaign of terror in Iraq in early June 2014. The heavily-armed militants took control of Mosul before sweeping through parts of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland.

Iraqi soldiers, police units, Kurdish forces, Shia volunteers, and Sunni tribesmen have succeeded in driving the terrorists out of some areas in Iraq.

IA/NT/AS

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