Iraqi and Kurdish forces retake Mosul dam

By Ruth Sherlock, and Carol Malouf in Badriyah

Kurdish peshmerga forces backed by American fighter jets recaptured Iraq's largest dam from the Islamic State on Monday, in what US President Barack Obama called a "major step forward" in the fight against the jihadists.

Local forces seized control of the dam after dismantling a complicated network of land mines and booby traps lain by the Islamic State fighters, who had themselves fled the area earlier in the day after a sortie of airstrikes by American F-18 fighter jets.

Speaking at the White House, Mr Obama reiterated the strategic military importance of seizing the dam on the Tigris River, warning that if it had had been breached it could have had "catastrophic consequences" and "endangered American Embassy personnel in Baghdad".

Peshmerga forces join the fight for the Mosul Dam (Sam Tarling/The Telegraph)

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11041011/It-is-time-to-take-up-arms-Yazidi-volunteers-fight-back-against-Islamic-State.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/11041201/David-Cameron-We-are-not-entering-into-another-Iraq-war.html

If the dam is intentionally damaged, or even just not properly maintained, it could unleash a 60ft-high wall of water that would submerge Mosul, Iraq's second city, drowning hundreds of thousands of people, and even potentially flooding parts of Baghdad.
Lt. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, an Iraqi spokesman, said Kurdish peshmerga troops and Iraqi security forces had finally "hoisted the Iraqi flag" over the damn, after two days of heavy fighting to capture it from the grip of the Islamic State fighter.
In the early hours of Monday morning US fighter jets had launched 15 air strikes in areas around the dam, continuing the biggest US offensive in Iraq since it pulled its troops from the country in 2011.
Peshmerga forces and some Iraqi government troops had made quick progress towards the dam over the weekend, seizing control of three villages nearby.
However, the advance of peshmerga forces was slowed, by roadside bombs and remotely detonated explosives, planted by the jihadists.
"The Islamic State had 10 rigged booby trapped cars and parked them on the main section of the dam," said a member of the Kurdish special forces, speaking from the newly conquered terrain. "We were afraid to enter the dam in case the jihadists remotely detonated the vehicles and caused damage to the dam's structure."
General Kawa Kawani, the spokesman for the Kurdish special forces said: "The Islamic State clearly have highly sophisticated bomb experts in their ranks," said Gen Kawani. "Two of their car bombs were detonated by mobile phones."
Whilst the central part of the dam appeared to be under control, fighting was continuing in the area
The Telegraph watched from the nearby town of Badriyah as fighter jets bombed the western edge of the reservoir, sending up plumes of smoke. Peshmerga troops in armoured trucks, followed by camouflage ambulances sped forwards towards the fighting, and an exchange of gun and mortar fire could be heard.
On Monday, the US also blacklisted two Islamic extremists in Iraq and Syria, including the Islamic State spokesman, following similar actions by the UN Security Council last week. Washington has so far failed to proscribe the Islamic State group.
Monday's designation of the IS spokesman as a "global terrorist" was a move in that direction

Source: telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast