Iraq Kurds launch Sinjar offensive

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ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Kurdish forces launched an operation to retake the town of Sinjar in northwestern Iraq early on Wednesday after heavy coalition air strikes on Islamic State positions in the area overnight, Kurdish security officials said.

If the peshmerga succeed in recapturing the town, it would open up a corridor to Sinjar mountain, where hundreds of minority Yazidis have been besieged by IS militants since August.

It would also be a symbolic victory for the Kurds, whose reputation as fearsome warriors was bruised after Islamic State overpowered the peshmerga in Sinjar and killed or captured hundreds of Yazidis.

"At 8:00 this morning the ground offensive began to liberate Sinjar town," said one official in the region's Security Council, adding that coalition planes had pounded the area for several hours beforehand.

"There's evidence that a lot of IS fighters abandoned their weapons and fled the area."

Several Kurdish security officials gave similar accounts.

U.S. President Barack Obama cited the duty to prevent an impending massacre of Yazidis by Islamic State militants as one of the main reasons for authorizing the first air strikes in Iraq this summer.

Since then, Kurdish peshmerga forces have regained most of the ground they lost to Islamic State in northern Iraq, but Sinjar's awkward geography - out on a limb to the west, has made it difficult to penetrate.

(Reporting by Isabel Coles; Editing by Dominic Evans)

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[Anthea]

The Yazidis should never have been deserted and let to suffer

[Londoner]

If the peshmerga succeed in recapturing the town, it would open up a corridor to Sinjar mountain, where hundreds of minority Yazidis have been besieged by IS militants since August.

The corridor to mount shengal already opened. Now people can go to Dhocke from Sehngal Mountain. Today Shengal and Zumar Peshemga fronts met and opened all the roads, including the road from Dehoke to Shengal Mountain.

[Anthea]

The corridor to mount shengal already opened. Now people can go to Dhocke from Sehngal Mountain. Today Shengal and Zumar Peshemga fronts met and opened all the roads, including the road from Dehoke to Shengal Mountain.

I hope they manage to save the lives of the Yazidis still stuck on the mountain

I also hope that the peshmerga do NOT desert the Yazidis again

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Masrur Barzani made a press conference, now the siege is broken. He said that people who want to be evacuated from Sinjar mountain can be, if they wish it.

I don't think that ISIS could easily come back in Sinjar, now they have lost the advantage of 'surprise' and they are weak.

[Londoner]

The Yazidis should never have been deserted and let to suffer

All high military, political and civilian officials are under arrest and investigation now. The retreating force went inside Syria and from there moved back towards North to come back home but at the border they were not allowed to come back and ordered to go back.

[Londoner]

Today more lands liberated like the strategic town of snosi. Today ISIS in Mosul put 13 of their high commanders infront of firing squad for failing to stand against Peshmerga yesterday and today.

[Londoner]

We have entered Shengal. The Peshmerga is now at the centre of Shengal. Cleaning operation still going on.