ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Assessing today’s major offensive against the Islamic State (ISIS) in several villages in the Nineveh plains, Mansour Barzani, a commander in the Kurdish Special Forces said that the group has been weakened dramatically and no longer able to put up the fight it used to two years ago.

“I think one should never underestimate his enemy, but ISIS has been weakened,” he told Rudaw on the frontline.Speaking of the first six hours of today’s operation, Mansour Barzani said the extremist militants “did not fight like they used to. They showed no resistance against our attack.”Many of the militants tried to flee on foot or on motorbikes before they were gunned down by the Peshmerga, he said.“ISIS has forced many young and inexperienced boys to become fighters, but they cannot fight and run away,” Mansour Barzani explained.Kurdish military officials said that within six hours they managed to wrest control of five villages from ISIS in the Nineveh plains.The operation was launched on both Makhmour-Gwer and Khazir fronts simultaneously.According to Mansour Barzani, the operation was to push back the ISIS threat from Peshmerga-held areas and free villages for their residents to return to.“The reason for this operation was to free this area because people lived under constant ISIS mortar shells and their people as refugees were a burden on the Kurdistan Region,” Mansour Barzani said. “Now these villages are freed and the fear and threat would is gone.”Peshmerga, Zeravani and anti-terrorism forces participated in today’s operation which was supervised by President Masoud Barzani and backed by coalition air strikes.Mansour Barzani told Rudaw that the goal of the operation was to free Kakei and Shabak areas which were taken by ISIS two years ago. “We don’t eye the land of Iraq or Arabs. We only defend the land of Kurdistan and want to free it.”Peshmerga and Iraqi army operations in recent months have pushed back ISIS towards the center and vicinities of its Mosul stronghold. However, it is not clear yet when the final operation to liberate the major city will kick off.