Battle for Sinjar: Kurds 'advance on IS-held Iraqi town'

Peshmerga fighters have reportedly taken a strategically important main road near the town that helps connect the IS strongholds of Mosul and Raqqa.

The offensive is supported by US-led coalition air strikes.

When it captured Sinjar last year, IS killed or enslaved thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority.

Tens of thousands of others became trapped on nearby Mount Sinjar without food or water for days until they were rescued by Syrian Kurdish forces. The risk of genocide was a key factor in the US decision to launch air strikes in Iraq.

'Moving carefully'

Coalition warplanes bombed IS positions, command-and-control facilities and weapons stores in the Sinjar area overnight before some 7,500 Peshmerga fighters launched a ground assault around dawn on Thursday, closing in on three fronts.

Within hours, they had successfully blocked Highway 47, the main road between Mosul, to the east, and Raqqa to the west, and secured three surrounding villages.

A Peshmerga source later told the BBC's Ahmed Maher that they had managed to seize a key checkpoint on the road at Umm al-Shababit, 26km (15 miles) west of Sinjar, and asserted their control over three hills to the north-west.

The Peshmerga are also laying siege to the 80% of the town of Sinjar that they failed to retake in an offensive in December, when IS was driven from Mount Sinjar.

The offensive by Kurdish forces began in earnest at dawn, with a series of coalition air strikes sending up plumes of smoke around the town of Sinjar.

It lies at the foot of a rugged mountain of the same name, and is strategically placed near the border with Syria.

Peshmerga forces began opening up with rocket fire, and their troops started moving down to join an advance on the ground.

Kurdish forces have controlled part of the town since an attack months ago. But IS militants put up strong resistance, leading to a prolonged stalemate.

The Kurds are clearly determined to win Sinjar back. They are calling this Operation Free Sinjar and say they are throwing 7,500 fighters into the battle.

Sinjar is one of the biggest towns they lost last year, though it was its mainly Yazidi population who suffered the most.

The Kurds are hoping for a swift victory. But advancing against IS in built-up terrain has proved slow and dangerous in the past.

The militants are adept at planting booby-traps and other bombs, often causing heavy casualties.

"We are advancing but carefully and slowly towards the heart of the town because of Daesh booby-traps, snipers, minefields and suicide bombers," the source said, using a pejorative term for IS based on an Arabic acronym of its former name.

A coalition statement said the Sinjar offensive would "degrade Daesh resupply efforts, disrupt funding to the terrorist group's operations, stem the flow of Daesh fighters into Iraq, and further isolate Mosul from Raqqa."