By Idris Okuducu and Farhat Shakir
NINEVEH, Iraq (AA) – Peshmerga forces have “totally captured” the center of the strategic town of Bashiqa and are now attempting to expel Daesh militants from the rest of the town, a Peshmerga officer announced on Monday afternoon.
“Our forces are now in total control of the center of Bashiqa,” Peshmerga officer Sherzad Zakholi told Anadolu Agency.
“The Iraqi national flag and the regional flag [i.e., that of northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region] have been hoisted above all government buildings in the area,” he said.
Zakholi added that Peshmerga forces were now in the process of clearing mines and booby-traps left in the area by Daesh militants.
Earlier Monday, Kurdish Peshmerga forces stormed Iraq’s northern town of Bashiqa as part of an ongoing military offensive ultimately aimed at recapturing the nearby city of Mosul from the Daesh terrorist group.
According to an Anadolu Agency reporter near the scene of the fighting, Peshmerga fighters entered the town’s center early Monday — from three directions — and are currently attacking Daesh positions in the area.
Military experts from a U.S.-led coalition are providing support to Peshmerga forces now fighting inside the town, the reporter said.
According to Sankar Mustafa, another Peshmerga officer, Peshmerga forces are also now in full control of the main road linking Bashiqa to Mosul.
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.
Turkey 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 lawmakers for Turkish troops to withdraw from the area.
Last month, the Iraqi army — backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes — launched a wide-ranging operation aimed at retaking Mosul, Daesh’s last bastion in northern Iraq.
In mid-2014, Daesh 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.
