Islamic State jihadists capture three towns and Iraq's largest dam after defeating Kurds
Written by : Mohamed Abdel Fattah
Aug 03, 2014
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) jihadist fighters on Sunday seized two small towns in northern Iraq after a fierce battle with Kurdish peshmerga forces, Kurdish officials said
jihadist fighters captured two northern Iraqi towns, Zumar Sinjar, Wana , a nearby oil field and Iraq's biggest dam after a battle with Kurdish forces .
Mosul Dam is the largest dam in Iraq. It is situated on the Tigris River, 45 miles upstream from Mosul in the north of the country.
Control of the dam could give ISIS, which has threatened to march on Baghdad, the ability to flood major cities.
The fresh gains by the Sunni extremist militants have forced thousands of people fleeing to the nearby mountains and the city of Zakho in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.
The majority of the people from the town of Sinjar are from the Yazidi minority ethnic Kurd origins.
The U.N. mission in Iraq, known as UNAMI, said as many as 200,000 civilians, mostly Yazidis, have fled to a nearby mountain but were surrounded by militants and endangered.
There are about 600,000 Yazidis remaining in Iraq with roughly 80 percent of them living in the towns of Sinjar and Bashika in Nineveh province.
ISIS militants have successfully captured an oil field close to the Iraqi town of Zumar after fighting with Kurdish forces who had control of the area.
The militants earlier took control of four Iraqi oil fields, securing additional funding for their operations in addition to millions of dollars worth of weapons and valuables they captured in June.
Zumar is a small Kurdish-majority outpost northwest of Mosul, which used to be under federal government control but was taken over by the Peshmerga in June.
The Kurds have long dreamed of their own independent state, an aspiration that angers Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led government, who has frequently clashed with the non-Arabs over budgets, land and oil.
ISIS, which swept through northern Iraq in June almost unopposed by the U.S.-trained army, poses the biggest challenge to the stability of Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Iraqi fighters abandoned their posts and weapons as ISIS fighters ransacked one province after another and in no time reached the outskirts of capital city, Baghdad.
The Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) changed its name earlier this year and declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria. The group has already seized four oil fields, which help fund its operations.
Sources
Dailystar
nydailynews.
RT
Aug 03, 2014
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) jihadist fighters on Sunday seized two small towns in northern Iraq after a fierce battle with Kurdish peshmerga forces, Kurdish officials said
jihadist fighters captured two northern Iraqi towns, Zumar Sinjar, Wana , a nearby oil field and Iraq's biggest dam after a battle with Kurdish forces .
Mosul Dam is the largest dam in Iraq. It is situated on the Tigris River, 45 miles upstream from Mosul in the north of the country.
Control of the dam could give ISIS, which has threatened to march on Baghdad, the ability to flood major cities.
The fresh gains by the Sunni extremist militants have forced thousands of people fleeing to the nearby mountains and the city of Zakho in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.
The majority of the people from the town of Sinjar are from the Yazidi minority ethnic Kurd origins.
The U.N. mission in Iraq, known as UNAMI, said as many as 200,000 civilians, mostly Yazidis, have fled to a nearby mountain but were surrounded by militants and endangered.
There are about 600,000 Yazidis remaining in Iraq with roughly 80 percent of them living in the towns of Sinjar and Bashika in Nineveh province.
ISIS militants have successfully captured an oil field close to the Iraqi town of Zumar after fighting with Kurdish forces who had control of the area.
The militants earlier took control of four Iraqi oil fields, securing additional funding for their operations in addition to millions of dollars worth of weapons and valuables they captured in June.
Zumar is a small Kurdish-majority outpost northwest of Mosul, which used to be under federal government control but was taken over by the Peshmerga in June.
The Kurds have long dreamed of their own independent state, an aspiration that angers Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led government, who has frequently clashed with the non-Arabs over budgets, land and oil.
ISIS, which swept through northern Iraq in June almost unopposed by the U.S.-trained army, poses the biggest challenge to the stability of Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Iraqi fighters abandoned their posts and weapons as ISIS fighters ransacked one province after another and in no time reached the outskirts of capital city, Baghdad.
The Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) changed its name earlier this year and declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria. The group has already seized four oil fields, which help fund its operations.
Sources
Dailystar
nydailynews.
RT
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