Jabbar Yawar

Iraqi Kurdish forces have seized the town of Bashiqa near Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as part of the operation to liberate Mosul from jihadists, an official said Nov. 8.

Bashiqa was now under the "complete control" of Kurdish peshmerga forces, Jabbar Yawar, the secretary-general of the Kurdish regional ministry responsible for the fighters, told AFP.

Kurdish forces attacked Islamic State fighters on Aug. 6 just 40 kilometers southwest of the Kurdish regional capital of Arbil in northern Iraq, a senior Kurdish official told Reuters.

Iraqi Kurds seized control of the northern oil city of Kirkuk on June 12, while surging Sunni Islamist rebels advanced towards Baghdad, as the central government's army abandoned its posts in a rapid collapse that has lost it control of the north.