US warplanes continue attacks around the Sinjar district, in northwestern Iraq, claiming to have weakened ISIS in an area where Kurdish Peshmerga forces are trying to seize new territory.
The momentum seems to be shifting away from the Peshmerga today, however, for after taking Mount Sinjar and parts of the town of Sinjar in the past few days, they are now facing heavy ISIS resistance and not making significant gains.
West of Mosul, Sinjar is a particularly valuable target for the Peshmerga, as it allows them to pressure the largest ISIS city in Iraq from multiple directions. It also gives them access to Yazidi allies.
ISIS, by contrast, is keen to hold Sinjar District, as it gives them direct links from Mosul into neighboring Syria, where they also hold massive amounts of territory. Without the district, Mosul’s primary supply line is from the south, in Anbar Province.
The Kurds are fighting for the Kurds, not Iraq. Yet even with substantial American air support and perhaps even American combat troops they have been unable to produce anything like the dominant hand they as much said they would when involving themselves initially. Its madness to see an Iraqi/American victory in Iraq but if the Kurds are checked its madness plus.