By RUDAW
Peshmerga forces advancing to liberate Shengal from IS control.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Peshmerga forces locked in an intense offensive against the Islamic State (IS/ISIS) in Shengal had the militants surrounded and driven to the town center early on Monday.
Zeravani special forces, Gulan units and a third force were encircling Shengal on three sides, a Rudaw correspondent in the area said, quoting officials as saying that 90 militants had been killed in two days of fighting.
The reporter added that the militants have taken position inside residential areas and homes, from where they are fighting back.
Meanwhile, a commander of the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) told Rudaw by telephone that his forces have crossed the border and joined the Kurdistan Region Peshmerga in their fight in Shengal and Rabia.
The Peshmerga forces retook the village of Walid near the Rabia border crossing with Syria on Monday morning, the Rudaw correspondent said.
In the early hours of Monday, the Kurdish forces also expelled IS fighters from Wanek township near Tilkef, as the Peshmerga made swift advances to retake Shengal and Zumar, near Mosul.
Wanek, near the Mosul dam, fell to the IS on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Peshmerga Ministry Spokesman Jabar Yawar disclosed some details of the heavy weapons the Kurdish forces have newly received for their war with IS, which has declared an Islamic state straddling Iraq and Syria.
Yawar said the Kurdish forces are now armed with heavy artillery, tanks, high-caliber machineguns and mortar launchers.
“The Peshmerga forces have all the advanced weapons except air power,” Yawar said, adding that the weapons had gone to two Peshmerga units.
Thousands of Peshmarga were dispatched to war areas near the Syrian border on Sunday.