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Iraqi government forces and Shia militias seized control of the strategic town of Jurf al-Sakhar near Baghdad from Islamic State (Isis) on Saturday, while Kurdish fighters made gains in the north after heavy coalition air strikes against the Sunni militants.
Iraqi troops and their Shia allies broke the grip of Isis in Jurf al-Sakhar after months of fighting against insurgents determined to march on the capital.
“Our forces with the support of the volunteers are in total control over Jurf al-Sakhar now and the terrorists fled to the southwest areas of the town,” a spokesman for security forces there said.
A victory could allow Iraqi forces to prevent the Sunni insurgents – positioned in several locations around Baghdad – from edging closer to the capital, sever connections to their strongholds in western Anbar province and stop them infiltrating the mainly Shia south.
The security officials said the Sunni insurgents fled to the two nearby villages of al-Farisiya and Hay al-Askari and were still attacking with sniper fire and mortars. Government forces were preparing for a major overnight operation against them.
In the latest fighting, 67 members of the Iraqi security forces and Shia militias as well as 300 Isis fighters were killed, the officials said.
It was not possible to get independent verification of the casualty tolls in the town 60km south of Baghdad.
Speaking to state television in the town, prime minister Haider al-Abadi said Iraqis forced out by fighting would soon return to their homes.
Isis swept through northern Iraq in the summer, facing little resistance from US-trained government troops.
The al Qaida offshoot then declared a caliphate and threatened to reach Baghdad, rattling the Shia-led government and intensifying sectarian bloodshed.
On Saturday, a suicide bomber killed seven Shia militiamen in a town just north of Baghdad, police and medical sources said.
Isis controls large parts of the Sunni heartland in Iraq’s western Anbar province, as well as swathes of Syria, and wants to redraw the map of the Middle East.
Sunni insurgents have been moving fighters, weapons and supplies from western Iraq through secret desert tunnels to Jurf al-Sakhar, Iraqi officials have said. Now it appears government forces may be able to disrupt that network.
While Iraq’s army and Shia militias have resisted Isis efforts to move closer to Baghdad, Kurdish forces have also gained ground, recapturing territory in the north.
The Kurds retook the town of Zumar and several nearby villages from early on Saturday after heavy coalition air strikes against the insurgents, security sources said.
If the Kurds manage to hold Zumar, that could enable them to disrupt Isis supply lines to nearby towns and cities.
A Kurdish intelligence officer in Zumar said Kurdish peshmerga forces had advanced from five directions in the early morning and encountered fierce resistance. A spokesman for the peshmerga also said Zumar was now in Kurdish hands.
Zumar was one of the first Kurdish-controlled towns to be overrun in August by Isis, who went on to threaten the autonomous region’s capital, Irbil, prompting air strikes by the US – a campaign since joined by Britain and France.
If the Kurds are able to keep Zumar, it would also make it easier for them to advance on Sinjar, where Isis have besieged members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority on a mountain.
