ERBIL, (Reuters) – Kurdish fighters said they had taken the town of Bashiqa near Mosul from Islamic State yesterday as coalition forces pressed their offensive against the jihadists’ last stronghold in Iraq.
Masoud Barzani, President of the Iraqi Kurdish region, told U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter that the Kurds had succeeded in liberating Bashiqa from Islamic State.
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters told reporters at the scene that they had entered Bashiqa. Journalists were not being allowed into the town, which lies 12 km (8 miles) northeast of Mosul.
The offensive to take Mosul, by Iraqi and Kurdish forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition, is expected to become the biggest battle in the country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
The capture of Bashiqa, if confirmed, would mark the removal of one more obstacle on the road to the northern city.
The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, said his own information – while limited – “suggests that President Barzani is right, that there has been a considerable success at Bashiqa”.
