Baghdad, Dec 17 (IANS): The Kurdish security forces launched a major offensive Wednesday to drive out Islamic State (IS) militants from villages near a town in Iraq's northern province of Nineveh, a Kurdish security source said.
Hundreds of Kurdish forces, known as Peshmerga, backed by US- led coalition aircraft, launched the offensive at about 7 a.m., clashing fiercely with the IS militants before freeing three villages near the town of Zumar, some 70 km northwest of Nineveh's provincial capital Mosul, which is partially seized by the extremist militants, the source informed Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The Peshmerga forces regained control on the main road between Zumar and the town of Rabia near the Iraqi-Syrian border, while warplanes of the US-led coalition carried out several airstrikes on the IS locations late Tuesday night, killing numerous IS militants and destroying their vehicles, the source said.
The main target of the offensive was to seize the roads and villages leading to the town of Sinjar, some 100 km west of Mosul, home to the Iraqi minority Yazidis who had been displaced from their homes when IS militants seized their town several months ago, added the source.
The Yazidi minority are primarily ethnic Kurds whose religion incorporates elements of many faiths. There are about 600,000 Yazidis left in Iraq with around 80 percent of them living in the towns of Sinjar and Bashika in the Nineveh province.
Zumar and Sinjar are part of the disputed areas of mixed ethnicities of Kurds, Arabs, Turkmans and others.
The Kurds are demanding the expansion of their sovereign region in northern Iraq to include the oil-rich province of Kirkuk and other areas in the Iraqi provinces of Nineveh, Salahudin and Diyala, but their request is being fiercely opposed by the Baghdad government.
Earlier in June, the Peshmerga took control of the disputed areas, including the northern city of Kirkuk, after the Iraqi security forces withdrew from their bases following the June 10 blitzkrieg of the Sunni militant groups, including the IS group, where they seized several territories in the predominantly Sunni provinces.