Peshmerga forces backed by US-led airstrikes have retaken the northern town of Sinjar from Islamic State militants, the Kurdish regional president in Iraq has said, though US and Kurdish military officials urged caution in declaring victory.

Masoud Barzani made the announcement during a press conference on Mount Sinjar, which overlooks the town.

KR Security Council (@KRSCPress) President @masoud_barzani addresses the people of Sinjar following success of Operation #FreeSinjar. pic.twitter.com/tXbH2SIlut

Earlier, the Kurdistan regional security council said forces had entered Sinjar from all directions to begin clearing the town of Isis militants, seizing key buildings in the process. Isis fighters were “defeated and on the run”, it added. A Kurdish flag was raised in the town centre after the forces encountered minimal resistance.



Heavy bursts of gunfire could be heard in the town as militants descended the hill overlooking Sinjar from the north, some with rocket-propelled grenades on their shoulders, witnesses said.

“We promised, we have liberated Sinjar,” Barzani said. “It’s time for the Yazidi girls to raise their heads up. Revenge has been taken for them.”

Sinjar was seized 15 months ago by Isis forces, who massacred or enslaved the local Yazidi community and ousted other minorities from the Nineveh plains.

Maj Ghazi Ali, who oversees one of the units involved in the offensive, described the situation in the city as still dangerous, and warned that it was too soon to declare victory. “I can’t say the operation is complete because there are still threats remaining inside Sinjar,” he told the Associated Press.

Col Steven Warren, a spokesman for the US-led coalition, confirmed only that Peshmerga fighters raised their flag on grain silos in the eastern part of the town. He said they had not fully retaken Sinjar.

KR Security Council (@KRSCPress) Peshmerga forces now inside Sinjar from all directions to clear the area of remaining #ISIL terrorists. #FreeSinjar pic.twitter.com/vORDqC3WJA

An offensive to retake the town was launched late on Wednesday as Kurds, backed by US-led airstrikes, severed a major supply line between the militant group’s stronghold in eastern Syria, and Mosul, their seat of power in Iraq.



As Kurdish forces took surrounding villages on Thursday, a commander said he had never seen Isis (also known as Daesh) so vulnerable. “For the last 15 months that I have been fighting Daesh, I have never seen them so weak, they were literally running away,” said Col Kamran Hawrami. “Our objective is to free Sinjar and the surrounding areas. The fighting is continuing on all fronts but we have passed by bodies of Daesh [fighters].”

Hundreds of Yazidi forces are also taking part in the attack on and one of their commanders said coalition air attacks had been key to the offensive.



Haydar Shasho, a top Yazidi commander and the head of the Sinjar protection force, who was east of town in the village of Sulakh, said: “The coalition air cover was very helpful and if it was not for air support, it would be very difficult to reach the objective of the offensive. Sinjar town is important to Yazidi people because without Sinjar, Yazidis do not exist.”

The operation is the largest coordinated effort so far to seize ground from Isis and a test of US plans to defeat the group using the Kurds as proxies.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest A peshmerga unit crossing into enemy territory outside Sinjar on Thursday. Photograph: TNS/Landov/Barcroft Media

Separately, the Iraqi military began an assault on Friday on the Isis-held city of Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad.

Kurdish officials said the attack on Sinjar was not part of long-mooted plans to retake either Mosul or Raqqa, across the Euphrates river in Syria. However, they acknowledged that if the operation was successful, it would put additional pressure on Isis in both cities.



Isis leader incapacitated with suspected spinal injuries after air strike Read more

Although heavily targeted throughout the campaign, Isis has kept a supply line between Raqqa and Mosul largely open. The highway, in particular, has been a major conduit for trade and the flow of fighters inside the area declared as a caliphate by the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in mid-2014.



An Isis push to advance towards Irbil had been repelled by the Kurdish peshmerga later last year, but not before the jihadis almost succeeded in breaking the city’s defences, exposing chronic command and control issues in peshmerga forces, which until then had acted as self-contained and disparate forces.

Since then, and with extensive support from the US air force and its allies, the peshmerga have retaken much of the area north-east of Sinjar that was controlled by Isis, including the strategically vital Mosul dam.

Various Kurdish militias on the edge of Sinjar have been fighting guerrilla battles for months with Isis, damaging or destroying much of the picturesque city of ancient, narrow streets lined with modest stone houses. The factions include the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), the Syria-based People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Yazidi-led forces billing themselves as the Sinjar Resistance. Iraqi Kurdish fighters have also held positions farther outside the city.

Winter brings fresh threat to Iraq’s refugees who fled the Isis advance Read more

Across the border, Kurdish irregular forces from the YPG have been successful in retaking part of north-east Syria from Isis. In doing so, they have angered Turkey. Ankara views the YPG as a close ally of the PKK, which has been fighting a separatist insurgency inside Turkish borders for close to 40 years.

Amira Sevo, 33, who escaped with five children from Sinjar, said she hoped the city would be freed soon so they could leave the refugee camp in Khanke, near Dohuk. “My husband has been on Mount Sinjar for two days and he is fighting now in the Sinjar area. He went to fight Daesh in order to free Sinjar town. Two of my brothers are still in Daesh hands and I don’t know if they are still alive. Our life in this refugee camp is not good and I hope Sinjar is freed soon so we can go back to our homeland,” she said.