Kurdish Forces Advance toward Sinjar

UPDATE: Peshmerga Retakes Sinjar City

A large Kurdish Peshmerga force, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, launched a major operation on Wednesday to retake the town of Sinjar, which has been under ISIL control since August. By securing Sinjar area, the Peshmerga will disrupt ISIL’s line of communication connecting areas under its control in Syria to Mosul.

The Kurdish regional security officials were quoted by the Associated Press today as saying that the Peshmerga forces have entered the town of Sinjar and have retaken at least eight villages around Sinjar, driving “large numbers” of ISIL insurgents to flee to Mosul and other nearby areas under their control.

The Combined Joint Task Force- Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) has been conducting airstrikes against ISIL positions near Sinjar. The CJTF, under the command of U.S. Army Lt. Gen. James Terry, oversees operations in Iraq and Syria against ISIL.  40 contributing nations are members of the combined task force.  Gen. Terry reports to CENTCOM Commander Gen. Lloyd Austin.

UPDATE: Peshmerga forces retook control of the city of Sinjar in biggest victory in months against ISIL. (Saturday, 20 December)

Photo credit: Peshmerga forces, back by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, advancing to recapture Sinjar; 17 December 2014 (Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)