Watch Kurdish tanks join anti-Daesh battle in Iraq’s Mosul
Kurdish peshmerga tanks are joining a major offensive aimed at retaking Daesh-held areas east of the Iraqi city of Mosul -- the Takfiri terrorist’s main hub in the country.
A column of T-55 tanks headed out for the frontline on Sunday to join some 5,500 peshmerga troops trying to liberate several Daesh-held villages in the region.
"The peshmerga-led ground offensive, backed by international coalition warplanes" started before sunrise, said a statement released earlier by the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC).
US warplanes have been conducting airstrikes against Daesh in Iraq since August of 2014. Some Western states have also participated in some of the strikes in Iraq.
After around 10 hours, the KRSC released another statement announcing that three villages had been retaken from the terrorists and that five car bombs had also been neutralized.
"This is one of the many shaping operations expected to increase pressure on Daesh in and around Mosul in preparation for an eventual assault on the city," added the KRSC.
Mosul, the capital of the northern province of Nineveh, fell into the hands of Daesh in June 2014 in the first stage of the terrorists' advance through Iraq, and has since served as the group’s de facto capital in the country. Iraq’s central government has announced that the army will launch a full-scale military campaign to retake the city after uprooting the group in Fallujah in the western province of Anbar.
Meanwhile, Iraqi forces have encircled Fallujah as part of a massive military operation to liberate the central city from the grip of Daesh.
Some 50,000 civilians are still trapped in the city, with the United Nations saying it has reports of people dying of starvation and for refusing to fight for the terrorists.
The northern and western parts of Iraq have been plagued by gruesome violence ever since Daesh launched an offensive in the Arab state two years ago.
The Iraqi military and volunteer fighters are engaged in joint military operations to win back militant-held regions.
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