Peshmerga Launch Operation to Liberate Shingal from IS

Mount Shingal (K24) - Kurdish peshmerga troops backed by multi-national anti-IS (Islamic State) coalition aircrafts started their offensive on Mount Shingal in the early hours of Thursday. K24 reporters on Mount Shingal (Sinjar) say Peshmerga forces have surrounded the town that has been under IS control since last year, from three sides.

According to a statement tweeted by the Kurdistan Region Security Council up to 7,500 Peshmerga are partaking in the offensive with the objective to take back Shingal and create "a buffer zone" to protect it from future IS assaults.

The statement adds that due to recent IS reinforcements there are some 600 militants in the town though the statement continues, Kurdish forces have secured several villages on the western front and Highway 47 in two separate areas, isolating Shingal from Tal Afar in North Nineveh Province. Highway 47 is strategically important to IS for transportation of goods and fighters, as it is the main route between Mosul and the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the self-declared caliphate.

A K24 reporter embedded with Kurdish forces said the Peshmerga unit he is with recently moved into Gereka Nasir, a northern neighbourhood of Shingal and destroyed two truck bombs using anti-tank Milan weapons.

Meanwhile, coalition aircrafts have been intensively pounding IS' positions with airstrikes in and around Shingal. It was reported they destroyed at least five IS car bombs and several fighting positions.

(Mesud Mihemed and Chekdar Jamal reported from Shingal)