

According to DPA, the Peshmerga captured the villages of Telsqof and Risala some 30 kilometres north of the city and were advancing cautiously in the direction of the strategic Mosul dam, Kurdish news site Rudaw reported quoting a local commander.

The reported advances come a day after nine US airstrikes hit Daesh positions around the dam and near Erbil.

The US began airstrikes against Daesh targets in northern Iraq 10 days ago, amid fears that the Peshmerga would be unable to hold off the advancing militants unaided.

Daesh which split from al-Qaeda last year when it insisted on operating in both Iraq and neighbouring Syria, seized swathes of northern Iraq in a lightning offensive in June.

It then routed Peshmerga forces from ethnically mixed areas in Nineveh province around Mosul earlier this month, and has reportedly carried out massacres against the Yezidi religious minority.

The militants killed 100 Yezidi men Friday near the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, after they refused to convert to Islam, while women and children were detained and taken to an unknown place, residents told dpa.

More than 200,000 people, mostly Yezidis and Christians, have fled their homes since the group's latest advances.

AM/