Islamic State suffers Middle East setbacks
Even as over 100 were killed in Paris attacks planned by Islamic State, the organization finds itself on the back-foot militarily in the Middle East.
"ISIL defeated and on the run," the Kurdistan regional security council said in a tweet, using an acronym for Islamic State. It said Kurdish peshmerga forces, which led the operation, had secured Sinjar's wheat silo, cement factory, hospital and several other public buildings.
Sinjar is home to Iraq's Yazidi minority who suffered at the hands of the Islamic State when it overran the area in August 2014, systematically slaughtering, enslaving and raping thousands.
Iraqi Kurdish regional President Massoud Barzani also declared victory in an offensive that could provide critical momentum in efforts to capture the western provincial capital Ramadi, and Mosul in the north, an Islamic State bastion.
"The liberation of Sinjar will have a big impact on liberating Mosul," Barzani, who personally oversaw the offensive, said atop Mount Sinjar, overlooking the town.
In the Sinjar area itself, the operation severed vital supply routes used by the Islamic State to move fighters, weapons and oil and other illicit commodities that provide funding for its self-proclaimed caliphate.
Civilians appeared to have fled the town before the operation began. But it was still not clear if most Islamic State militants had carried out a tactical withdrawal.
An army officer near Ramadi's northern front said troops had started advancing towards the Euphrates along 2 km (1.25 mile) of a main road which would form the final segment of a cordon which security forces have been building for months. He said advances were slowed by roadside bombs.
