Middle East

US airstrikes hit Islamic State positions near Iraq dam

Iraqi forces ‘regain control’ of strategic Mosul dam in significant victory

Kurdish men selling weapons at an arms market in Arbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Iraqi and Kurdish forces have today claimed to have recaptured Mosul Dam from the Islamis State group. Photograph: Azad Lashkari/Reuters.

Mon Aug 18 2014 - 17:15

The US military conducted airstrikes today on Islamic State positions near the Mosul Dam in northern Iraq, the Pentagon said.

A mix of US fighter, bomber and drone aircraft took part in the strikes, which damaged or destroyed six armed vehicles, a light armored vehicle, a vehicle-mounted anti-aircraft artillery gun, a checkpoint and an improvised explosive device emplacement belt, the Pentagon said in a statement.

Since August 8th the US military has conducted a total of 68 airstrikes in Iraq, the Pentagon said. Of those 68 strikes, 35 have been in support of Iraqi forces near the Mosul Dam.

Earlier today an army chief said that Iraqi security forces and Kurdish fighters have regained control of the strategic Mosul Dam, the country’s largest, from Islamic militants who captured it less than two weeks ago.

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Lt Gen Qassim al-Moussawi told the Associated Press that Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Iraqi anti-terrorism troops retook the dam today.

He said the troops were backed by aerial support, but he did not specify whether there were US air strikes during the battle.

Iraqi state TV also reported the capture.

Regaining control of the entire Mosul Dam complex on the Tigris River and the territory surrounding its reservoir is a significant victory against the Islamic State group, which seized large swathes of northern and western Iraq this summer.

The dam supplies electricity and water to a large part of the country.

A Twitter account belonging to a media organisation that supports the Islamic State said the dam was still under the group’s full control.

A Mosul dam engineer who has been in close contact with Islamic State militants holding the dam said yesterday that they had been placing roadside bombs along roads leading in and out of the complex in anticipation of an assault.

The latest northern Iraq offensive by Islamic State militants has rattled the Baghdad government and its Western allies, prompting the United States to mount the first airstrikes in the country since it withdrew in 2011.

Agencies

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