Kurdish-Iraqi leader Massud Barzani on Friday announced the “liberation” of the town of Sinjar from the Islamic State group, the latest in a series of setbacks for the Muslim militant group.
The operation was led by the autonomous Kurdish region’s Peshmerga forces, but also involved fighters from the Yazidi minority, which the Islamic State targeted in a brutal campaign of massacres, enslavement and rape.
The offensive cut a key supply line linking militant-held areas in Iraq with those in Syria.
Photo: Reuters
Across the border, the Syrian Democratic Forces coalition said it also delivered a blow to Islamic State logistics, announcing that it had driven the group out of al-Hol, an important village on their Iraq-Syria supply route.
The gains against the Islamic State are the latest sign that the group, which won a series of victories in a stunningly rapid offensive in Iraq last year, is now on the defensive.
In remarks on Friday, US President Barack Obama expressed satisfaction with efforts against the Islamic State, saying the group’s expansion has been curbed.
“From the start, our goal has been first to contain, and we have contained them,” Obama said.
Barzani told a news conference near the northern town: “I am here to announce the liberation of Sinjar.”
His remarks also made clear that political conflict over Sinjar would be likely to follow the military battle for the town.
“Sinjar was liberated by the blood of the Peshmerga and became part of Kurdistan,” Barzani said.
Baghdad, which has long opposed Kurdistan’s desire to incorporate a swathe of disputed northern territory, is unlikely to welcome that idea.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of Kurdish fighters dressed in camouflage and armed with rifles and machine guns moved into the town on foot, a journalist reported.
Carrying the Kurdish region’s flag, they fired into the air and shouted: “Long live the Peshmerga” and “long live Kurdistan.”
Inside Sinjar, many houses and shops, a gas station and the local government headquarters had been destroyed.
Burned-out cars sat in the streets, while barrels apparently containing explosives had been left behind.
The huge task of clearing Sinjar of bombs planted by the Islamic State remains, and there is also the possibility of holdouts, who have kept up attacks even after other areas in Iraq were said to have been retaken.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique