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| Iraq |
| Kurdish forces enter Daesh-held Bashiqa east of Mosul |
| 2016-11-08 |
| [AA.TR] Kurdish Peshmerga forces on Monday stormed Iraq’s northern town of Bashiqa as part of an ongoing military offensive aimed at ousting ISIS faceless myrmidons from the nearby city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... According to an Anadolu Agency news hound near the scene of the fighting, Peshmerga fighters entered the town’s center early Monday -- from three directions -- and are currently attacking ISIS positions in the area. Military experts from a U.S.-led coalition are providing support to Peshmerga forces now fighting inside the town, the news hound said. According to Sankar Mustafa, a Peshmerga officer, Peshmerga fighters inside Bashiqa managed to kill five ISIS suicide car-bombers who had tried to impede their progress as they advanced on the town center. "Peshmerga forces now surround Bashiqa’s outskirts and are besieging the town from all sides," Mustafa told Anadolu Agency. "We also now control the main road linking Bashiqa to Mosul," he said. The majority-Ezidi town of Bashiqa lies some 12 kilometers (roughly 8 miles) to the northeast of Mosul, the regional capital of Iraq’s northern Nineveh province. ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has a longstanding military training mission at the nearby Camp Bashiqa, where Turkish soldiers have trained both Peshmerga fighters and local tribal volunteers in combat techniques. In recent months, the mission’s presence in northern Iraq has led to a degree of tension between Baghdad and Ankara amid calls by some Iraqi politicians for Turkish troops to withdraw from the area. Last month, the Iraqi army -- backed by U.S.-led coalition In mid-2014, ISIS captured Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, before overrunning vast swathes of territory in the country’s north and west. Recent months have seen the Iraqi army, backed by local allies on the ground and the U.S.-led air coalition, retake much territory, especially on Mosul’s outskirts and in the western Anbar province. More from Iraqi News: (IraqiNews.com) Nineveh- Kurdish Peshmerga militias began an offensive on the city of Bashiqa, Nineveh, on Monday after besieging it for days, Alsumaria News reported on Monday. “Peshmerga forces launched an attack on the dawn of Monday to retake Bashiqa, east of Mosul after besieging the city for several days,” according to Alsumaria News. Coinciding with the Peshmerga offensive, aircraft from the US-led coalition forces launched a “violent” attack on the city, Alsumaria explained. Bashiqa has been a highly contentious issue between the Iraqi and Turkish government as Ankara had deployed troops there to train locals fighting Islamic State militants, a situation which Baghdad said violated its sovereignty and occurred without authorization. Eyes are now on Mosul, another city in Nineveh and the last major ISIS stronghold in Iraq, where Iraqi government forces and allied al-Hashd al-Shaabi militias have been waging a relentless campaign to retake the city from the extremist group. More again from Iraqi News: (IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – Kurdish Peshmerga forces managed to fully control the area of Bashiqa, east of Mosul, Alsumaria reported on Monday. Alsumaria News stated, “Kurdish Peshmerga forces managed to fully recapture the city of Bashiqa from the grip of the Islamic State extremist group,” adding that, “Peshmerga forces are now stationed in all neighborhoods of Bashiqa.” “The Kurdish forces are now preparing to conduct a number of search operations in different areas of the city of Bashiqa,” Alsumaria added. Earlier today, Peshmerga forces launched an attack to retake Bashiqa, east of Mosul after besieging the city for several days. |
| Posted by:Fred |