Kurdish forces, backed by US and British airstrikes, have attacked the Islamic State on multiple fronts in northern Iraq.
The Kurds took the Rabia crossing on the Iraq-Syria border on Tuesday and attacked the town of Zumar near the Mosul Dam.
The peshmerga also launched an assault on the village of Basheer, captured by the Islamic State in June and used as a base for operations against Kirkuk, the key Kurdish-controlled city 15 kilometers (10 miles) to the north.
And the Kurdish forces reportedly were on the offensive north of Mosul, Iraq’s second city which was seized by insurgents in June.
Peshmerga spokesman Halgord Hekmat said, “We have pushed the Islamic State from 30 positions, including in the Zumar and Rabia areas.”
He said the advances were part of an effort to retake Sinjar, to the southwest. The Islamic State’s capture of the town in early August spurred an exodus of refugees and provided a cause for US aerial intervention.
The US Central Command said on Tuesday that it had carried out seven air attacks on Islamic State fighting positions and vehicles. In Britain’s first attacks in the crisis, two Tornado jets struck a heavy-weapons position and an armed pick-up truck.
See Iraq Daily, Sept 30: British Warplanes Drop 1st Bombs as Kurdish Forces Advance
The British military also said that it expanded operations overnight, firing four missiles at Islamic State vehicles west of Baghdad as they searched for a jihadist command-and-control position.
