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Mosul Dam now under ISIS control, says Iraqi official

August 9, 2014 at 12:08 pm

The Islamic State (ISIS) militants have taken over the largest hydroelectric dam in Iraq, the chief of staff of the northern Iraq region, Fouad Hussein, said on Friday.

At a joint press conference with the Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari in Irbil on Friday, Hussein said that ISIS has seized control of the Mosul Dam “in an attempt to advance towards sensitive areas near Kurdistan.” He admitted that ISIS “outguns the Peshmerga forces because of the advanced US-made weapons they seized from the Iraqi army.”

Since 9 June, he said, 150 Peshmerga troops have been killed, and a further 500 have been wounded in the fighting.

Zebari said that Baghdad and Irbil will work together to “wipe out” ISIS.

Moreover, he hailed the latest decision by US President Barack Obama, who authorised on Thursday targeted airstrikes against ISIS in northern Iraq as well as humanitarian airdrops for the displaced civilians. He pointed out that US support “boosted the morale” of the Peshmerga fighters and changed the rules of the game on the ground.

Tensions have mounted in northern and western Iraq since ISIS and allied militants seized large territories of Nineveh Province on 10 June after the retreat of Iraqi army troops without any resistance, leaving behind huge quantities of weapons.