ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Islamic State (IS/ISIS) fighters bombed a bridge below the Mosul dam, as Peshmerga forces backed by US jets advanced on the facility and said they were partly in control.
A Peshmerga major told Rudaw his forces had entered the administration facilities, where IS fighters were also present and there was some gunfire. He said his forces were in the southern part of the dam.
The militants had bombed a bridge connecting to a mountain, to prevent the Peshmerga from advancing.
“There is a weak presence of ISIS armed men on the other side of the mountain, and they have small hopes of staying there. That is why they bombed the main bridge below the dam,” the major said.
Kurdish Peshmerga forces, backed by US air strikes against the armies of the Islamic State, are reporting a rapid advance to retake control of the Mosul dam, the country’s biggest.
Earlier, Rudaw correspondent Hevidar Ahmed reported that "Peshmerga forces were able to take control of the gate at Mosul dam, and are advancing forward."
Monday's gains came a day after Peshmerga forces took the town of Telsqof, in coordination with the US military.
“With the help of American fighter jets the Peshmerga launched a wide-ranging attack this morning, we have taken Telsqof and Risala villages and we are moving towards the Mosul dam,” a Peshmerga commander in the area told Rudaw.
The US Central Command said it threw fighter jets and unmanned drones into the fight, conducting 14 hits on Sunday and nine the day before.
Analysts say that the show of force proves that the threat posed by IS control of the dam is finally being taken seriously.
Retaking the dam, which holds 11 billion cubic meters of water and can produce 1,000 megawatts of electricity, is of strategic importance and US authorities have vowed to defend it.
That is because control of the dam gives the jihadists the ability to hold back waters to arable lands in the Shiite south and starting a famine. Destroying the dam would wash away the 1.5 million population of Mosul and flood Baghdad days later.
