Kurdish forces make gains as tensions with Baghdad rise

Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters on Sunday night retook the whole of the strategically key Mosul dam from Islamic State militants and are now looking to make further gains, Kurdish sources said.

“Mosul Dam was liberated completely,” Ali Awni, an official from Iraq’s main Kurdish party, told AFP, although this was subsequently question by an unnamed Kurdish official who told Reuters on Monday that the dam had not been retaken but “most of the surrounding area” had been seized.

On Sunday, Kurdish sources, declared that they had already seized 80 percent of the dam and had inflicted “big losses to IS.”

The victory, if validated, will be the biggest the Peshmerga have seen since IS launched a major offensive earlier this month. The Kurdish advance, which has already seen the Peshmerga gain control of several key towns that fell to IS in recent weeks, comes after Western powers stepped up their involvement in northern Iraq.

“Within the next few hours we expect to clean up the area from IS and fully control Mosul dam,” Abdul-Khaliq Babiri, a senior member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) told Rudaw news agency on Sunday.

US airstrikes against IS positions, first authorised on 8 August, have been widely credited with helping to turn the tide of the conflict.

The White House said late on Sunday that the air strikes were ordered by President Barack Obama because IS control of the dam presented a clear and present danger to both Iraqi and US interests.

"The failure of the Mosul Dam could threaten the lives of large numbers of civilians, threaten US personnel and facilities - including the US embassy in Baghdad - and prevent the Iraqi government from providing critical services to the Iraqi populace," the White House said in a statement.

"These operations are limited in their nature, duration, and scope and are being undertaken in coordination with and at the request of the government of Iraq."

The UK is now also stepping up its involvement, with UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon saying that Britain had moved beyond humanitarian assistance, with UK reconnaissance planes reportedly now flying over the country.

"This is not simply a humanitarian mission. We and other countries in Europe are determined to do what we can to help the government of Iraq combat this new and very extreme form of terrorism that by IS is promoting,” Fallon said on Monday.

Fallon also told personnel taking part in the mission that it would likely take "weeks and months" while Prime Minister David Cameron declared that British "military prowess" would be used to push back IS who posed a “clear threat” to the UK’s domestic security.

"There may well now be in the next few weeks and months other ways that we may need to help save life (and) protect people and we are going to need all of you again and the surveillance you are able to give us," Fallon told UK pilots stationed in Cyprus.

"We want to help the new government of Iraq and Kurdish forces. We want to help them stop the advance of IS and stop them from being terrorised."

However, Baghdad - which invited foreign assistance - has become increasingly concerned about the growing Western support for Iraqs Kurds.

Iraqi army officials on Sunday warned against foreign planes breaching Iraq’s airspace and arming “a certain Iraqi faction”.

“We have noticed that in recent days foreign fighter jets have breached Iraq’s airspace and delivered arms to a certain faction inside Iraq without Baghdad’s permission,” Kurdish Rudaw news agency reported the army as saying.

“We welcome international support for Iraq in its war against terrorism. But Iraq’s territorial sovereignty must be respected.”

The statement, issued by the army which is still officially under the command of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, also mentioned “northern Iraq,” in a clear reference to the autonomous Kurdistan region.

The move is the latest sign that tensions between the Kurdish capital Erbil and Baghdad continue, despite the two sides both facing down the same IS threat.

According to Reuters, the Kurds have used the current crisis to step up their independent oil sales, in a move that Baghdad has long slammed as unconstitutional.

“A tanker with 80,000 cubic meters of crude oil has arrived at the Omisalj terminal [in EU member state Croatia] and it should be unloaded on Sunday," Reuters quoted the Jutarnji List newspaper reporting, citing a source from the state-owned oil transport operator Janaf.

Controversy over independent Kurdish oil sales first erupted in May when Erbil defied Maliki and began selling oil abroad. The Kurds insist the sales are legal, and blame Maliki for not fairly sharing Iraq’s energy proceeds and for promoting sectarian policies – something that many feel has elevated Maliki’s Shiites ahead of Iraq’s Kurdish and Sunni minorities and could have partly flamed the IS phenomenon.

Maliki denies these allegations but was unable to heed of growing, internal and internal criticism of his rule, which continued to grow after IS seized vast swaths of western Iraq in early June, as Maliki’s army wilted away.

After a protracted political battle, which left Maliki unable to form a government, he finally announced that he would stepped down in favour of new prime minister Haidar al-Abadi, who now has three weeks to form a ruling coalition and begin the difficult process of turning Iraq around.

His departure has paved the way for a growing international presence in Iraq, aimed at combating the IS-led Sunni surge that has left more than a million Iraqis internally displaced.

Minorities have so far paid a particularly heavy toll on Iraq’s minorities including the Yazidis, Christians and Turkmen, with some reports alleging that IS has committed acts of genocide in Iraq.