Buoyed by US warplanes, Kurds recapture Mosul dam from claws of Islamic State
In what would act as an emboldening factor for Kurdish fighters of Iraq, they are reportedly very close to taking complete control of Iraq`s largest dam in Mosul from the claws of the Islamic State.
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Today the President notified Congress that he had authorized US Armed Forces to conduct targeted airstrikes in Iraq...
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"These operations are limited in their nature, duration, and scope and are being undertaken in coordination with and at the request of the government of Iraq," the statement added.
Reinforced by the US airstrikes that pounded Islamic State targets near Mosul dam and Irbil, Kurdish ground forces battled the extremist militants on Sunday.
Kurdish officials said that by Sunday evening, they had taken over the eastern side of the dam, the CNN reported.
But the peshmerga fighters were yet to take control of the western side, the CNN cited their spokesman as saying.
The militants have laid mines and booby traps, that the Kurdish fighters are trying to remove.
Had the dam remained in the claws of the militants, they could have wreaked havoc by flooding the cities resulting in a catastrophe-like situation.
The Islamic State, earlier known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has captured huge swathes of territories across northern Iraq and Syria and established a Caliphate across the occupied parts.
Even as the US got involved in the situation in Iraq on August 7, deciding to launch strikes against the Islamic State, the Sunni extremists continue their barbarism, executing dozens of minorities and abducting women and children.
In the early part of this month, the militants took over the town of Sinjar, forcing the civilians including Christians, Yazidis and Kurds to flee to the mountains, sparking a humanitarian crisis.