Iraq Kurd chief announces 'liberation' of Sinjar from IS

Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani announced the "liberation" of Sinjar from the Islamic State group Friday in an assault backed by US-led strikes that cut a key jihadist supply line with Syria.

The operation was led by the Iraqi autonomous Kurdish region's peshmerga forces and also involved fighters from the Yazidi minority, a local Kurdish-speaking community targeted in a brutal IS campaign of massacres, enslavement and rape.

The success of the Sinjar drive is the latest sign that IS, which won a series of victories in a stunningly rapid offensive in Iraq last year, is now on the defensive.

"I am here to announce the liberation of Sinjar," Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, told a news conference near the northern town.

Barzani's remarks also made clear that political conflict over Sinjar would likely follow the military battle for the town.

"Sinjar was liberated by the blood of the peshmerga and became part of Kurdistan," Barzani said.

Baghdad, which has long opposed Kurdistan's desire to incorporate a swathe of disputed northern territory, is unlikely to welcome the idea of Sinjar becoming part of the Kurdish region.

Caption: This footage grab shows Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces moving down a hill that overlooks Sinjar.

Photo: www.presstv.ir