Very good work, Kurds!!!
Kurdish forces retake strategic highway in Iraq
MOUNT SINJAR, Iraq — Sweeping down in hodgepodge convoys of trucks and buses, Kurdish forces and Yazidi fighters opened their offensive against Islamic State militants in northern Iraq on Thursday with a burst of initial success: The forces cut off the main highway the jihadis used as a supply line, and they moved in to begin fighting for the town of Sinjar.
The fall of that town to the Islamic State last year was the start of a wave of atrocities — the killing, rape, and enslavement of thousands of people from the Yazidi religious minority — that led the Obama administration to step up its use of air power against the jihadis. And it was with heavy US air strikes that the fight to retake Sinjar began early Thursday.
More than 7,000 fighters — mostly Kurdish forces but also Yazidi fighters seeking revenge against the jihadis — raced toward an important supply road, Highway 47, coming from different directions to try to cut off up to 700 Islamic State militants believed to be waiting in and around Sinjar, flanked by thick fields of improvised bombs.
Trying to achieve some element of surprise, the Kurdish commander of one of the assault’s main forks, Major General Aziz Waisi, had directed some of his fighters to head to the south on a rugged and serpentine route over Mount Sinjar, following a dry river bed. Under clear morning skies as US air strikes softened the defenses ahead, his men set out.
The advance was stop and start, at times violently rugged, careening over steep pitches. Other times, the convoy halted completely, a long line of vehicles waiting as earthmoving equipment was brought in to reshape the rocky terrain ahead.
Later, one fighter who was keeping watch for Islamic State suicide attackers along the highway said his nervousness about a potential jihadi counterassault was nothing compared with the nightmare of the twisting drive down Mount Sinjar.
“We were ordered to take the road,” said the peshmerga fighter, Hamid Khudir Ahmed, 24. “Otherwise, I would never have taken it.”
The vehicles made a motley fleet: SUVs, jeeps, buses, motorcycles, and light trucks with jury-rigged heavy machine gun mounts in the back. The Kurdish flag was prominently displayed. The peshmerga fighters themselves were lightly equipped, most with AK-47s and small arms, and many without any body armor. And they were all fighting, in effect, without pay; the Kurdish government was so low on cash that it was three months behind in paying peshmerga salaries.
The Kurds had managed to acquire a small number of armored US Humvees, picked up after the Iraqi army abandoned them as soldiers fled last year’s rapid offensive by the Islamic State.
Simply reaching the base of the mountain turned into a cause for celebration. Blasting Kurdish music, some peshmerga fighters got out of their vehicles and danced. But after a hasty meal, they were on the march again. As they approached Highway 47, the scream of military jets and the thud of explosions grew closer.
American forces were involved on the ground as well. Roughly two dozen Special Forces members were serving as advisers to peshmerga forces away from the immediate fighting, US officials said. Half of them were with the main headquarters at the foot of Mount Sinjar, and the other dozen were spread along the long mountain ridge to advise Kurdish air strike spotters as they chose targets, according to one senior official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the operations.
By midday, Kurdish officials said they controlled about 22 miles of Highway 47, stretching both east and west of Sinjar, effectively cutting off one of the main supply routes for the Islamic State between Syria and the vital jihadi-held city of Mosul in Iraq.
Beyond the tactical division of the forces, there were political forces at work. After months of tension among rival Kurdish factions, which some analysts said played a part in delaying the start of the offensive, the main body of peshmerga forces out of Iraqi Kurdistan was taking the lead Thursday. It included a unit of Yazidi fighters, and some volunteers, including some fighters from Syria.
But fighters from the Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, listed as a terrorist group by the United States and some of its allies, were also fighting the Islamic State on a different stretch of road. Even though most of the Yazidi fighters were accompanying the government forces, they tend to favor the PKK over the Kurdish government, crediting the group for helping many escape last year as Islamic State jihadis swept over Mount Sinjar.
American and Kurdish officials described the Sinjar offensive as an important step to put pressure on the Islamic State and make it harder for the group to move supplies. But it is just one front in a far-flung and protracted war against the Islamic State, which holds crucial areas across western Iraq and eastern Syria. Even as Kurdish and Yazidi forces were savoring an initial day of success, questions emerged about whether the Islamic State would keep up any heavy fighting to retain Sinjar now that it was mostly cut off.
Continue reading at:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2015/11/12/kurdish-forces-retake-strategic-highway-iraq/ykLW99
Kurdish forces retake strategic highway in Iraq
MOUNT SINJAR, Iraq — Sweeping down in hodgepodge convoys of trucks and buses, Kurdish forces and Yazidi fighters opened their offensive against Islamic State militants in northern Iraq on Thursday with a burst of initial success: The forces cut off the main highway the jihadis used as a supply line, and they moved in to begin fighting for the town of Sinjar.
The fall of that town to the Islamic State last year was the start of a wave of atrocities — the killing, rape, and enslavement of thousands of people from the Yazidi religious minority — that led the Obama administration to step up its use of air power against the jihadis. And it was with heavy US air strikes that the fight to retake Sinjar began early Thursday.
More than 7,000 fighters — mostly Kurdish forces but also Yazidi fighters seeking revenge against the jihadis — raced toward an important supply road, Highway 47, coming from different directions to try to cut off up to 700 Islamic State militants believed to be waiting in and around Sinjar, flanked by thick fields of improvised bombs.
Trying to achieve some element of surprise, the Kurdish commander of one of the assault’s main forks, Major General Aziz Waisi, had directed some of his fighters to head to the south on a rugged and serpentine route over Mount Sinjar, following a dry river bed. Under clear morning skies as US air strikes softened the defenses ahead, his men set out.
The advance was stop and start, at times violently rugged, careening over steep pitches. Other times, the convoy halted completely, a long line of vehicles waiting as earthmoving equipment was brought in to reshape the rocky terrain ahead.
Later, one fighter who was keeping watch for Islamic State suicide attackers along the highway said his nervousness about a potential jihadi counterassault was nothing compared with the nightmare of the twisting drive down Mount Sinjar.
“We were ordered to take the road,” said the peshmerga fighter, Hamid Khudir Ahmed, 24. “Otherwise, I would never have taken it.”
The vehicles made a motley fleet: SUVs, jeeps, buses, motorcycles, and light trucks with jury-rigged heavy machine gun mounts in the back. The Kurdish flag was prominently displayed. The peshmerga fighters themselves were lightly equipped, most with AK-47s and small arms, and many without any body armor. And they were all fighting, in effect, without pay; the Kurdish government was so low on cash that it was three months behind in paying peshmerga salaries.
The Kurds had managed to acquire a small number of armored US Humvees, picked up after the Iraqi army abandoned them as soldiers fled last year’s rapid offensive by the Islamic State.
Simply reaching the base of the mountain turned into a cause for celebration. Blasting Kurdish music, some peshmerga fighters got out of their vehicles and danced. But after a hasty meal, they were on the march again. As they approached Highway 47, the scream of military jets and the thud of explosions grew closer.
American forces were involved on the ground as well. Roughly two dozen Special Forces members were serving as advisers to peshmerga forces away from the immediate fighting, US officials said. Half of them were with the main headquarters at the foot of Mount Sinjar, and the other dozen were spread along the long mountain ridge to advise Kurdish air strike spotters as they chose targets, according to one senior official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the operations.
By midday, Kurdish officials said they controlled about 22 miles of Highway 47, stretching both east and west of Sinjar, effectively cutting off one of the main supply routes for the Islamic State between Syria and the vital jihadi-held city of Mosul in Iraq.
Beyond the tactical division of the forces, there were political forces at work. After months of tension among rival Kurdish factions, which some analysts said played a part in delaying the start of the offensive, the main body of peshmerga forces out of Iraqi Kurdistan was taking the lead Thursday. It included a unit of Yazidi fighters, and some volunteers, including some fighters from Syria.
But fighters from the Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, listed as a terrorist group by the United States and some of its allies, were also fighting the Islamic State on a different stretch of road. Even though most of the Yazidi fighters were accompanying the government forces, they tend to favor the PKK over the Kurdish government, crediting the group for helping many escape last year as Islamic State jihadis swept over Mount Sinjar.
American and Kurdish officials described the Sinjar offensive as an important step to put pressure on the Islamic State and make it harder for the group to move supplies. But it is just one front in a far-flung and protracted war against the Islamic State, which holds crucial areas across western Iraq and eastern Syria. Even as Kurdish and Yazidi forces were savoring an initial day of success, questions emerged about whether the Islamic State would keep up any heavy fighting to retain Sinjar now that it was mostly cut off.
Continue reading at:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2015/11/12/kurdish-forces-retake-strategic-highway-iraq/ykLW99
