Kurdish Forces Push Offensive to Retake Sinjar from ISIS

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Kurdish security forces have successfully regained a large part of the town of Sinjar in Nineveh, northern Iraq on Sunday, December 21, 2014, according to an unnamed security source and the Kurdish fighters' official webpage, Antara News reported.

The operation was carried out one day after Kurdish forces managed to re-take a part of the town, while intense fighting between the Kurds and Islamic State (IS) forces continued to rage throughout the town and its immediate vicinity.

A fierce gunfight and massive explosions were heard throughout Sunday in Sinjar, when Kurdish security forces - also known as the Peshmergas - fought to liberate a number of small enclaves within the town, which is located around 100 kilometres west of Mosul, Nineveh Province's capital, as reported by Kurdistan's Democratic Party (KDP), the dominant Kurdish party led by regional president Masoud Barzani.

Scores of bomb squads were deployed to disarm numerous land mines and bombs as well as explosives which had been set up by IS fighters and their symphatizers across several building across Sinjar, reported Xinhua on Monday morning.

"Terrorist have set up numerous land mines and and bombs in several homes and buildings across the town, but we swept the town clear once we seized the town," said Qasim Shasho, a Peshmerga leader in the town of Sinjar, as quoted by Xinhua.

Shasho also said that his personnel found a mass grave just outside of the stricken town. Xinhua reported that between 70 to 80 bodies were found in the grave - most of which were women and children.

ANTARA NEWS | XINHUA