An offensive to wrest control of a critical dam in northern Iraq from Sunni militants continued on Monday, as Kurdish and Iraqi forces tried to clear the area of mines and booby traps.And to make matters worse for ISIS, its now their dead burnt bodies that are appearing on the internet.
The campaign, which represents the most highly coordinated operation involving U.S., Kurdish and Iraqi forces since American troops left Iraq in 2011, began on Sunday and appeared to have beaten back much of the Islamic State's fighters occupying the area in and around the Mosul Dam.
By early Monday, Iraqi military officials said the strategic post had been retaken. Gen. Qassim Atta, a spokesman for Iraq's military in Baghdad, said the Iraqi flag was flying over the site and the military was now working on dismantling 170 explosives planted there by Islamic State militants.
...The ground campaign followed nearly two dozen U.S. airstrikes over the weekend. Jet fighters and armed drones targeted insurgent positions near the dam and at Erbil, capital of the semiautonomous Kurdish region, according to the U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East.
The U.S. has conducted roughly 50 airstrikes in Iraq since Aug. 8. when President Barack Obama authorized U.S. air support after the Islamic State gained ground and fears that the Yazidi minority in the region would be targeted by the militants.
The airstrikes will continue until the Peshmerga and Iraqi security forces can retake the position, a U.S. defense official said.
yrian war planes bombed positions belonging to the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) in the northern province of Raqqa for a second day Monday, an activist group said.JAWA HAS MUCH MORE.
Regime planes killed 31 jihadists and eight civilians Sunday in an unprecedented wave of aerial bombardment against the group in its Raqqa bastion.
The bombing continued Monday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, with at least 14 raids against jihadist positions.
There was no immediate death toll in the renewed bombing.
Three raids targeted the area around the town of Tabqa in western Raqqa and four hit near the Tabqa military airport, the only remaining regime-held position in the province.
The other seven strikes hit sites inside Raqqa city, the provincial capital.