Islamic State gains control of Iraqi dam

Smoke rises from the Baiji oil refinery during clashes between the fighters of Islamic State and Iraqi forces last week.

Reuters/Baghdad

Islamic State fighters seized control of Iraq's biggest dam, an oilfield and three more towns on Sunday after inflicting their first major defeat on Kurdish forces since sweeping through the region in June.

Capture of the Mosul Dam after an offensive of barely 24 hours could give the Sunni militants the ability to flood major Iraqi cities or withhold water from farms, sharply raising the stakes in their bid to topple Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shia-led government.

"The terrorist gangs of the Islamic State have taken control of Mosul Dam after the withdrawal of Kurdish forces without a fight," said Iraqi state television.

The swift defeat of Kurdish "peshmerga" troops dealt a sharp blow to one of the only fighting forces in Iraq that until now had stood firm against the Islamist fighters who aim to redraw borders of the Middle East.

The Islamic State, which sees Iraq's majority Shias as apostates who deserve to be killed, also seized the Ain Zalah oil field - adding to four others already under its control which provide funding for operations - and three towns.

Initially strong Kurdish resistance evaporated after the start of an offensive to take the town of Zumar. The Islamists then hoisted their black flags there, a ritual that often has preceded mass executions of their captured opponents and the imposition of an ideology even al-Qaeda finds excessive.

The group, which has declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria to rule over all Muslims, poses the biggest challenge to the stability of Opec member Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. On Sunday its members were also involved in fighting in a border town far away in Lebanon, a sign of its ambitions across the frontiers of the Middle East.

On its Twitter site, the Islamic State posted a picture of one of its masked fighters holding up a pistol and sitting at the abandoned desk of the mayor of Sinjar. Behind him was the image of a famous Kurdish guerrilla leader.

In a statement on its website, the Islamic State said it had killed scores of peshmerga, the Kurdish fighters whose name means "those who confront death".