Iraq PM orders air strikes to support Kurdistan's Peshmerge army battling ISIS jihadists

Iraq PM orders air strikes to support Kurdistan's Peshmerge army battling ISIS jihadists
BAGHDAD,— Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday ordered the airforce to provide support to Kurdish Peshmerga forces battling jihadists in the north of the country, army spokesman Qassem Atta said.

"The commander in chief of the armed forces has issued orders to the leadership of the airforce and the army's aviation units to provide air support to Peshmerge forces," he said in a statement.

ISIS seized the large Kurdish town of Shingal (Sinjar in Arabic) on Sunday, as well as two others in the same area. It took the town of Zumar the previous day and is now threatening Mosul dam, the country's largest.

The latest fighting in Nineveh province means that the Peshmerge have largely pulled back to the old borders of Kurdistan autonomous region.

Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched fierce offensives against the al-Qaeda linked Islamic-jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ISIS in Shingal and Zumar in Nineveh provincewww.Ekurd.net on Sunday, after the towns fell to the jihadi fighters in overnight fighting.

  

Intense battles were reported in Shingal where the Kurdish forces launched a four-pronged attack against the militants, with fears for the town’s majority Kurdish Yazidi population who are considered infidels by the religious zealots.

Meanwhile Kurdish fighters from Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) have crossed the border to help Iraq's Kurds battle jihadists who took over several towns over the weekend, the group itself and a military source said Monday.

"The Democratic Union Party (PYD) is fighting in the Shingal area and Rabia," a senior army official told AFP, stressing that "it was not coordinated with the Iraqi government."

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