Kurds and Yazidi fighters supported by a strong U.S. coalition air strikes have joint forces to take back the ISIS’ controlled northern Iraqi town of Sinjar.
In this joint operation on Thursday morning, about 7,500 Kurdish Peshmerga, the Kurds military force mobilized Yazidi fighters in an attack of Sinjar from all three directions to prevent the inflow of supply, even destabilizing the ISIS position on the ground.
According to the Kurdish Region Security Council, the joint operation took advantage of the weakening of the ISIS brought about by the coalition air strikes in Northern Iraq. The targeted air strikes destroyed command and control facilities, weapon storage, explosive and device factories and ISIS’ held territory fighting areas.
Compared to “Kobani”, a Syrian border town operation, the battle in Sinjar comes at a cost of heavy strikes of air power hammering the city with heavy artillery, darkening the sky with four different columns of black smoke according to CNN’s Paton Walsh. In this backdrop, the Peshmerga slipped into the Sinjar mountain, while the U.S. coalition forces participated on the field from their locations.
The strength and strategies of the Peshmerga forces are further intensified by the leading of coalition advisers from the U.S. and other countries. The troops are not only located behind the front lines giving advises to Peshmerga. But some are also situated in the front lines assisting and aiming at airstrike targets.
Regaining back Sinjar, – a town that links to the Iraqi city of Mosul, which is an ISIS “prized possession” as it connects to ISIS’ held cities in Syria, is to get the ISIS out. But, the Peshmerga’s first main target is to take control of Route No. 47 the artery where supplies and people – particularly the population left under ISIS rule can be liberated and pass through towards a freer zone, though the Peshmerga claimed the “Operation Free Sinjar” will not be easy.
