Peshmerga retake Sinune, tighten noose around ISIS

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish forces liberated Sinune, the biggest town west of Mosul near the Syrian border on the third day of attacks against the Islamic State (ISIS).

The administrator of Sinune said that the ISIS militants had looted the shops, people’s homes and generators and markets during their control of the town in the past four months.

The town has a population of 140,000 people.

The capture of Sinune is tightening the noose around ISIS in areas around Mosul, particularly the Yezidi town of Shingal.

Rakan Babasheikh, a Yezidi official, said they have intelligence that ISIS militants have already started fleeing the town of Shingal.

Several thousand Peshmerga fighters launched their biggest operation against ISIS on Wednesday, so far capturing dozens of villages and killing many militants.

On Friday afternoon the Peshmerga found the town lifeless: its population was either taken captive and deported by ISIS in August or had escaped to the Kurdish region.

The head of Kurdistan’s Security Council Masrour Barzani said on Thursday that the Kurdish forces have expelled ISIS from 700 square kilometers since the start of operations and that in many areas the militants have been cut off from Mosul.

Peshmerga officials say that the major operation has the ISIS militants in a state of disarray and they have withdrawn to Mosul and many have escaped across the border into Syria.