Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters take position on the frontline in Khazer near the checkpoint of Aski kalak, 40km west of Arbil, yesterday.

AFP/Arbil

Kurdish peshmerga forces yesterday recaptured seven Christian villages in northern Iraq in clashes with Islamic State (IS) militants, an officer and a cleric said.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians, most of them Chaldeans, fled their homes when IS launched a renewed drive in the north in early August.

Iraq’s largest Christian town, Qaraqosh, and dozens of other villages were all but emptied in what Christian leaders described as the worst disaster for the minority in centuries.

Yesterday, peshmerga forces ousted IS militants from seven villages west of the Kurdish capital Arbil during fighting in which rockets and mortar rounds were used, a senior officer said.

“We liberated those villages with the support of US aircraft,” Major Sardar Ali said, referring to the Nineveh plains area between Arbil and Mosul, the main IS hub in Iraq.

The United States, whose air force has been targeting IS militants in the area since early August, has yet to confirm it carried out the latest reported strikes.

The officer said many of the homes were booby-trapped by the militants before they retreated.

The peshmerga, the main security forces of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, are receiving arms and ammunition from countries including the United States and France.

A source in the Catholic Chaldean church said Kurdish forces had made progress yesterday.

“The peshmerga managed to liberate several villages... (IS) militants have now fled from there,” the cleric said on condition of anonymity.

The villages were important because of their location close to the towns of Bartalla and Qaraqosh, he added.

IS fighters on June 9 launched an offensive that saw them seize the second city of Mosul and sweep through much of Iraq’s Sunni heartland in a matter of days.

In another push in early August, they targeted minority groups, took control of the country’s largest dam and moved within striking distance of Arbil.

That prompted Washington to send warplanes back into the skies over Iraq for a bombing campaign to support efforts by Kurdish and federal forces to recapture lost ground.

On the political front, the Iraqi parliament voted down Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi’s nominees for defence and interior minister yesterday.

Parliament approved Abadi’s partial cabinet on August 8, ushering in his term as premier, but he asked for a week to present nominees for several ministries, including the security posts.

MPs rejected his candidates for the interior, defence and tourism ministers yesterday, with some applauding after the no votes, though they did approve Mehsen Hassun as minister of water resources.

“I will consult with the (political) blocs and present the names when they are ready,” Abadi said at the end of the session.

Iraq’s last government also began without defence and interior ministers and the positions remained unfilled for the next four years, but Abadi said yesterday that he wants to end the tradition.

“I am not ready... to administer these two ministries,” he said, adding that he did so during the past week with “great difficulty”.

Parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi announced that MPs would reconvene tomorrow.

Washington called on Iraqi leaders to complete the formation of the government as soon as possible.

“We do appreciate the effort that Iraq’s leaders have put forth thus far in forming an inclusive government,” said State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf.

But she said they “must act without delay and make the necessary decisions to complete the cabinet”, adding the two posts were “a crucial part” of the national security plan.

 

 

 

 

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