Kurdish forces retake parts of Mosul Dam

Kurdish forces took over parts of Iraq’s largest dam yesterday less than two weeks after it was captured by the Islamic State extremist group, as US and Iraqi planes aided their advance by bombing militant targets near the facility.

The US began targeting Islamic State fighters with airstrikes a little over a week ago, allowing Kurdish forces to fend off an advance on their regional capital Irbil and to help tens of thousands of members of religious minorities to escape the onslaught.

Recapturing the dam would be a significant victory against the Islamic State group, which has seized vast swathes of northern and western Iraq and northeastern Syria. The dam supplies electricity and water for irrigation to a large part of the country.