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[h=4]Iraqi Kurds launch offensive to retake ISIL-held Sinjar[/h]Kurdish Iraqi fighters, backed by the U.S.-led air campaign, launched an assault Thursday aiming to retake the strategic town of Sinjar
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Iraqi Kurdish forces launched an assault against Islamic State militants in Northern Iraq on Thursday. The Kurds are attempting to retake the strategic town of Sinjar. The US is backing the offensive. (Nov. 12) AP
Smoke believed to be from an airstrike billows over the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015.(Photo: AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
Kurdish Iraqi fighters backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes launched a ground offensive Thursday to retake the strategic Iraqi<span style="color: Red;">*</span>town of Sinjar from the Islamic State.
The Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) said in a series of tweets that warplanes struck dozens of positions in Sinjar and the nearby city of Tal Afar. Both are on the border with Syria.
The ground offensive includes up to 7,500 peshmerga fighters —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the Kurdish military.
The extremists, also known as ISIS or ISIL, overran the northern mountain town in August 2014, causing tens of thousands of religious minority<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Yazidis<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to flee.
"There is an active firefight with ISIL terrorists in Gulat village in the East front," the KRSC said in a statement. "Radio chatter of an ISIL (leader)<span style="color: Red;">*</span>can be heard instructing ISIL terrorists to stay and fight in Sinjar, adding that anyone fleeing the battlefield will be killed," it added.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The<span style="color: Red;">*</span>KRSC said around 30 militants were killed.
The<span style="color: Red;">*</span>KRSC said Kurdish forces<span style="color: Red;">*</span>reached the key<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Highway 47, which passes by Sinjar, linking<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the ISIL strongholds of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in northern Iraq, cutting off access to Syria and preventing ISIL from making reinforcements. It said the forces also now controlled three villages.
It said its objectives are to clear the militants<span style="color: Red;">*</span>from<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Sinjar, take strategic supply routes,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and establish "a significant buffer zone" to protect the city and its inhabitants from ISIL fire. It said the number of militants in the town has risen up to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>600 due to recent reinforcements by the militants.
Thousands of Yazidis<span style="color: Red;">*</span>have been<span style="color: Red;">*</span>slaughtered since the fall of Sinjar<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and large numbers of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Yazidi women have been forced into sexual slavery.
Yazidis are ethnically Kurdish and their religion is influenced by Christianity, Islam and Zoroastrianism (an ancient Persian religion). They have been persecuted by different communities in the Middle East for centuries. Some, including ISIL, consider them to be "devil worshipers."
The U.S. military has not commented on the offensive but it comes as Washington expands its fight against militants in Syria and Iraq.
Late last month, President Obama approved the deployment of about 50 special forces advisers to work alongside local forces battling ISIL in the region.
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