Peshmerga forces attack Bashiqa after days of siege
Peshmerga forces. File photo.
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh- Kurdish Peshmerga militias began an offensive on the city of Bashiqa, Nineveh, on Monday after besieging it for days, Alsumaria News reported on Monday.
“Peshmerga forces launched an attack on the dawn of Monday to retake Bashiqa, east of Mosul after besieging the city for several days,” according to Alsumaria News.
Coinciding with the Peshmerga offensive, aircraft from the US-led coalition forces launched a “violent” attack on the city, Alsumaria explained.
Bashiqa has been a highly contentious issue between the Iraqi and Turkish government as Ankara had deployed troops there to train locals fighting Islamic State militants, a situation which Baghdad said violated its sovereignty and occurred without authorization.
Eyes are now on Mosul, another city in Nineveh and the last major ISIS stronghold in Iraq, where Iraqi government forces and allied al-Hashd al-Shaabi militias have been waging a relentless campaign to retake the city from the extremist group.