Kurdish peshmerga forces moved on foot into the town, where many houses and shops have been destroyed, and damaged cars sat in the street.
Jihadist graffiti, including "The Islamic State", had been painted on some houses, and barrels apparently containing explosives had been left behind.
The major operation, which is led by the autonomous Kurdish region's peshmerga forces and also involves fighters from the Yazidi minority that has been brutally targeted by IS, succeeded in cutting a key jihadist supply line through the town to neighboring Syria on Thursday.
Anti-IS forces then deployed around the town and prepared to move in.
Permanently cutting the supply line, which links IS's Iraq hub Mosul with areas it holds in Syria, would hamper the jihadists' ability to move fighters, equipment and other supplies between the two countries.
"By seizing Sinjar, we'll be able to cut that line of communication, which we believe will constrict (IS's) ability to resupply themselves, and is a critical first step in the eventual liberation of Mosul," said Colonel Steve Warren, spokesman for the international operation against IS.
IS overran Sinjar in August last year, forcing thousands of Yazidis to flee to the mountains overlooking the town, where they were trapped by the jihadists.
The United Nations has described the attack as a possible genocide, and on Thursday the US Holocaust Memorial Museum echoed that claim in a report detailing allegations of rape, torture and murder by IS against the minority.
Aiding the Yazidis, whose unique faith Sunni Muslim group IS considers heretical, was one of Washington's main justifications for starting its air campaign against the jihadists last year.
(AFP)
i24news.tv
13/11/15
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Kurdish President Massoud Barzani officially announced the 'liberation' of Sinjar from Islamic State militants Friday after a major operation backed by US-led strikes to retake the town made infamous by the group's massacre of members of the Yazidi minority...
ReplyDeleteBarzani, speaking on Mount Sinjar overlooking the town Barzani said the city "is liberated by the Peshmerga. I want to congratulate the people of Kurdistan, especially the Yazidis. We delivered on our pledge to liberate Sinjar," adding that he wanted to "warmly thank the US and other coalition countries for their air strikes."
"The liberation of Sinjar will have a big impact on liberating Mosul," Barzani continued, adding that "Sinjar was liberated by the blood of the peshmerga and became part of Kurdistan."
But Baghdad, which has long opposed Kurdish leaders' ambitions to expand their autonomous region by incorporating a swathe of neighbouring historically Kurdish-majority territory, is unlikely to welcome the idea of Sinjar becoming part.............http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/middle-east/92312-151113-iraq-kurd-forces-enter-town-of-sinjar-from-north