Backed by U.S.-led coalition air strikes, Peshmerga forces launched an offensive in the early morning designed to cordon off Sinjar, take control of strategic routes and establish a buffer zone to protect the town from artillery.
A victory in Sinjar could give Peshmerga forces, government forces and Shi’ite militias momentum in efforts to defeat Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which controls large areas of Iraq and Syria and has affiliates in Libya and Egypt.
So far the Kurds have captured three villages and penetrated parts of Highway 47, a supply route between Raqqa in Syria and the Iraqi city of Mosul, both of them ISIL bastions.
“The ground assault began in the early morning hours of Nov. 12, when peshmerga units successfully established blocking positions along Highway 47 and began clearing Sinjar,” said the coalition in a statement.
“The peshmerga will continue operations to re-establish government control over key portions of the areas.”
ISIL’s killing and enslaving of thousands of the northern town’s Yazidi residents focused international attention on the group’s violent campaign to impose its radical ideology and prompted Washington to launch its air offensive.
The U.S. expectation is that it would take two to four days to secure Sinjar and another week to finalise clearing operations, a U.S. military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
U.S. military advisers are with Kurdish commanders near Sinjar mountain but are positioned well back from the fighting, a U.S. military spokesman said.
U.S. Army Colonel Steve Warren told Reuters some U.S. advisers were also on Sinjar mountain working with the Kurdish peshmerga forces to advise and assist with the development of targets for air strikes.
The U.S. military estimated that 60 to 70 ISIL fighters had been killed in U.S.-led coalition air strikes so far on Thursday, said Warren, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition effort against ISIL.
ISIL uses Highway 47 to transport weapons, fighters and illicit commodities to fund its operations, said the coalition, which conducted more than 250 air strikes in the past month across northern Iraq.
“Strikes destroyed ISIL fighting positions, command and control facilities, weapon storage facilities, improvised explosive device factories, and staging areas,” said the coalition, referring to ISIL.
Russia’s recent interventions — air strikes against opponents of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and intelligence sharing with Baghdad — have raised concerns in Washington that its former Cold War foe is gaining influence in the Middle East.
U.S.-led coalition air strikes pounded ISIL-held areas in the town overnight, as around 7,500 Kurdish special forces, peshmerga and Yazidi fighters descended from the Sinjar mountain towards the front line in a military convoy.
“This operation will degrade ISIL resupply efforts, disrupt funding to the terrorist group’s operations, stem the flow of ISIL fighters into Iraq, and further isolate Mosul from Raqqa,” said the coalition.
“Coalition air strikes will continue to target ISIL leaders, revenue sources, supply routes, command facilities, and weapons caches to dismantle their operations in Iraq and Syria.”
The Kurdish security council said Kurdish forces had captured a village to the west of Sinjar and two others on the eastern outskirts. Reuters could not independently confirm this.
Near the front lines on Thursday, a Kurdish officer stood behind a wall of sandbags. Sinjar, about 300 metres (1,000 feet)away, could be seen through a gap in a rampart.
Kurdish officers said an Islamic State sniper had taken up position in the town. Coordinates were passed to a joint operations room and within five minutes the position was bombed.