Kurds push back militants around dam

Backed by US warplanes, Kurdish fighters are making gains

Yazidi refugees inside a tent at Silopi refugee camp near Sirnak city, on the Turkish-Iraqi border on August 16. EPA

AL KOSH, Iraq // Kurdish fighters backed by US warplanes pushed back militants around Iraq’s largest dam on Sunday, as Sunni tribesmen and security forces fought the militants west of Baghdad.

Two months of violence have brought Iraq to the brink of break-up, and world powers relieved by the exit of divisive premier Nouri Al Maliki were sending aid to the hundreds of thousands who have fled their homes as well as arms to the Kurds.

Kurdish fighters were advancing on Mosul dam, which the Islamic State fighters seized a week ago, but their progress was being hampered by roadside bombs, Kurdish officials said. At least one report late on Sunday said the dam was recaptured by Kurdish forces.

The dam on the Tigris river north of Iraq’s second city provides electricity and irrigation water for farming to much of the region.

Its recapture would be the biggest major prize won back from the militants since they launched their sweeping offensive in early June, routing the security forces.

“Half of the Mosul dam area was retaken, the eastern part,” said Kawa Khatari, an official of the autonomous Kurdish region’s largest party.

“They are heading towards Tal Kayf, but the main road was planted with roadside bombs,” he added.

Another Kurdish official, Harim Kamal Agha, said the bombs planted by the retreating militants were slowing the advance.

A Kurdish officer near the scene of the fighting said that progress was being made, but clashes were still continuing.

The US military said its forces conducted 14 airstrikes on Sunday – after nine strikes on Saturday.

Buoyed by the air strikes US president Barack Obama ordered last week, Kurdish forces have tried to claw back the ground they have lost since the start of this month, when the militants went back on the offensive north, east and west of Mosul.

In Anbar province, west of Baghdad, security forces backed by Sunni tribal militia, who threw their weight behind a counter-offensive against the militants on Friday, made gains west of the provincial capital Ramadi, police said.

Fighting was also taking place near the strategic Euphrates Valley town of Haditha, located near another important dam, Police Staff Major General Ahmed Sadag said.

The rallying of more than two dozen Sunni tribes to the government side marked a potential turning point in the fightback against the militants and their allies.

The militants were able to sweep through the Sunni heartland north and west of Baghdad in June, encountering little effective resistance, and Iraqi federal security forces have yet to make significant headway in regaining ground.

Anbar was the birthplace of the Sahwa, or Awakening, movement of Sunni tribes that from late 2006 sided with US forces against Al Qaeda, of which the Islamic State is an offshoot, helping turn the tide against that insurgency.

In the north, members of minority groups including the Yazidis, Christians, Shabak and Turkmen, remain under threat of kidnapping or death at the hands of the militants.

Human rights groups and residents say the Islamic State has been demanding that religious minorities in the Mosul region either convert or leave, unleashing violent reprisals on any who refuse.

Amnesty International, which has been documenting mass abductions in the Sinjar area, said the Islamic State has kidnapped thousands of Yazidis in this month’s offensive.

When the militants began their Iraq offensive on June 9, Kurdish forces initially fared better than federal government troops, many of whom simply fled.

But the US-made weaponry abandoned by the federal army has turned the Islamic State into an even more formidable foe.

Many in and outside Iraq say the Shiite-led government was partly to blame by pushing sectarian policies that have marginalised and radicalised the Sunni minority.

Mr Al Maliki was seen as an obstacle to progress, and his announcement on Thursday that he was abandoning his efforts to cling to power was welcomed with a sigh of relief at home and abroad.

International support has poured in for prime minister designate Haidar Al Abadi as he attempts to forge a new, more inclusive government capable of uniting broad support against the militants.

* Agence France-Presse, Associated Press