Kurdish Forces Break Sinjar Siege and U.S. Strikes Kill Islamic State Commanders

Supported by U.S. airstrikes, Kurdish forces carried out a two-pronged attack in part of an offensive launched on Wednesday and managed to open a corridor for people to escape.

By Mary Casey-Baker

Mary Casey-Baker is the editor of Foreign Policy’s Middle East Daily Brief, as well as the assistant director of public affairs at the Project on Middle East Political Science and assistant editor of The Monkey Cage blog for the Washington Post.

December 19, 2014





Kurdish forces in northern Iraq claim they have broken the Islamic State siege of Mount Sinjar, freeing hundreds of people, including many from Iraq’s Yazidi minority who have been trapped since the militant group overtook the area in August. Supported by U.S. airstrikes, Kurdish forces carried out a two-pronged attack in part of an offensive launched on Wednesday and managed to open a corridor for people to escape. With 8,000 Kurdish forces, this has been the biggest offensive against the Islamic State militants, according to Kurdish officials. On Thursday, U.S. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reported in recent weeks U.S. airstrikes killed three Islamic State military leaders including Abd al-Basit, a top figure in military operations in Iraq, and Haji Mutazz, a deputy to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Dempsey said hitting these “high-value targets” is “disruptive” to the Islamic State’s “planning and command and control.”

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