IS siege of Mount Sinjar broken: Iraqi Kurd official

Source: AFP

A broad peshmerga operation backed by US-led air strikes broke the Islamic State group's weeks-old siege of Iraq's Mount Sinjar on Thursday, a top Iraqi Kurdistan security official said.

"Peshmerga forces have reached Mount Sinjar, the siege on the mountain has been lifted," Masrour Barzani, the chancellor of the Kurdistan Regional Security Council, told reporters from an operations centre near the border with Syria.

A Yazidi leader atop the mountain however said he could see no sign of a military deployment and a peshmerga commander explained that any evacuation would only begin on Friday.

A statement from Barzani's office said the operation launched by the peshmerga on Wednesday morning had been one of the most successful so far against the Islamic State (IS) group.

Read more: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/siege-mount-sinjar-broken-iraqi-kurd-official-190320799.html#SVv5vZb