Kurdish peshmerga fighters have seized a silo, cement factory, hospital and numerous public buildings in Sinjar, Iraq, and are now in the process of clearing the area of Islamic State militants, the Kurdistan Region Security Council said Nov. 13, Reuters reported. Kurdish forces also managed to take a key stretch of road leading to the Islamic State stronghold of Baj. Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani held a press conference near Sinjar declaring the success of the operation, congratulating the peshmerga as well as the city’s Yazidi minority. He also announced plans to work with Baghdad to convert the district of Sinjar into an independent province within the federal structure of Iraq. The Sinjar offensive, which began Nov. 12 with the goal of cutting off a key Islamic State supply line , involved 7,500 Kurdish fighters supported by U.S. and coalition advisers directing airstrikes from behind the lines. The […]