Kurds launch offensive to retake Iraqi town of Sinjar from ISIS

The Kurdish Regional Security Council announced Thursday that 7,500 peshmerga fighters are launching an assault to take back the Iraqi town of Sinjar from Islamic State.

The Kurds are being assisted by a U.S.-led air campaign, and the plan is to establish a "significant buffer zone to protect the city and its inhabitants from incoming artillery," The Associated Press reports. The peshmerga are closing in on three sides of Sinjar, and airstrikes have already started against ISIS targets. The main goal is to cut off access to Highway 47, which links Sinjar to Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in northern Iraq, and is used by ISIS to move weapons, fighters, and various goods.

In August 2014, ISIS fighters took control of the strategic city, killing members of the minority Yazidi community and causing tens of thousands to flee to the mountains, where they were surrounded and trapped by militants during a brutal heatwave. Over the past several months, various Kurdish militias based in Turkey, Syria, and Iraq have been fighting against ISIS in guerrilla battles around the outskirts of Sinjar.

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