Iraq Kurd chief hails advances in anti-jihadist battle

Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani hailed advances by peshmerga fighters against the Islamic State group Sunday as they battled the jihadists for a northern town with the backing of US-led strikes. Thousands of the autonomous Kurdish region's peshmerga launched a major operation on Wednesday which broke the second IS siege this year of Mount Sinjar.
The Kurdish offensive threatens the links between the city of Mosul, the main IS stronghold in Iraq, and territory the militants control in neighbouring Syria. "During the past 48 hours, the peshmerga opened two main routes to Mount Sinjar," Barzani said during a visit to Mount Sinjar, adding: "We did not expect to achieve all these victories." In addition to breaking through to the mountain, "a large part of the centre of the town of Sinjar was also liberated," he said of the district's main settlement to the south. The Kurdish regional president said the peshmerga might join an operation to retake Mosul itself.
"We will take part if the Iraqi government asks us, and of course we will have our conditions," he said, without specifying what these might be. The Kurdistan Regional Security Council said on Sunday that peshmerga forces were advancing inside the town of Sinjar, "engaging and suppressing (IS) positions" with the support of air strikes by international forces. Explosives disposal teams also cleared key roads north of Mount Sinjar, it said.
The US-led coalition said its forces launched 13 air strikes against IS in northern and western Iraq on Sunday, including four near Sinjar. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor reported "at least 12" coalition air strikes on IS positions north of Syria's second city Aleppo on Sunday. IS spearheaded a sweeping offensive that has overrun much of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland since June, presenting both an opportunity for territorial expansion and an existential threat to the country's Kurdish region. Multiple Iraqi divisions collapsed in the early days of the militant advance, clearing the way for the Kurds to take control of a swathe of disputed northern territory that they have long wanted to incorporate into their autonomous region over Baghdad's objections.