Iraq: Kurdish Forces Fight To Retake Mosul Dam

Kurdish forces have retaken parts of Iraq's Mosul Dam from Islamic State (IS) fighters, according to a security official.

General Tawfik Desty said that Kurdish Peshmerga forces backed by Iraqi and US warplanes launched the operation to retake the dam on Sunday morning after it was seized by IS fighters ten days ago.

Gen Desty said his forces were now in control of the eastern side of the dam and that fighting was continuing.

The dam provides electricity to much of the region and is crucial to irrigation across vast areas of farming.

Another Kurdish commander, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Kurdish advance was being hindered by roadside bombs planted by retreating Islamic State fighters.

Keshmerga fighters monitor the area 13km from Mosul

"They are advancing slowly. The obstacles are the roadside bombs. It's a Daash tactic," he said, referring to the Islamic State by an Arabic acronym.

"They have reached inside the dam. There is no fighting, just the (roadside) bombs, and the abandoned buildings are all rigged with explosives."

Meanwhile, a group of Peshmerga told Sky News' special correspondent Alex Crawford that they need advanced military hardware with which to fight, but that they are still waiting for arms to arrive from abroad, despite promises from EU foreign ministers.

The US began airstrikes against IS forces a week ago after the Islamist group swept across a large part of northern and central Iraq, seizing Mosul and threatening Baghdad and Irbil.

Sheikh Khalah Sheikh Alyas: 'IS killed our young people'

Warplanes hit targets near Irbil after hundreds of Yazidi men in the north were said to have been "massacred".

Meanwhile, displaced Yazidis who fled to Syria have taken up military training and are "seeking revenge" from IS fighters who pushed them out of their homes and killed their families.

Sheikh Khalah Sheikh Alyas, head of a Yazida training camp in Qamishli, Syria said: "The insurgents of the Islamic State killed our young people and took our women and girls and then displaced us, therefore we came here.

"I called on Yazidi young men to volunteer to take revenge and they came in large numbers. Only yesterday and today we received about 55 men.

"Some of these people have come from refugee camps and others have come directly from the mountain after leaving their families at the camps. They came of their own free will."

An IS fighter one the streets of Mosul

Local officials and witnesses said IS fighters killed almost 400 Yazidi men in the village of Kocho and abducted their wives and children over two days.

IS fighters besieged the village 12 days ago and gave its residents a deadline to convert to Islam, according to Yazidi politician Mahma Khalil.

Around 1.5 million people in northern Iraq have been displaced by the fighting since the IS insurgency took hold.

Britain's Ministry of Defence said it has deployed a US-made spy plane over the north of the country to monitor the humanitarian crisis and the movements of IS fighters.

Two British planes landed in Irbil on Saturday, carrying humanitarian supplies.

David Cameron has warned that if the Islamic State's onslaught continues Europe will be facing a "poisonous" terrorist state on the shores of the Mediterranean.