Iraqi troops and Kurdish Peshmerga forces backed by US airstrikes have managed to secure the area near Iraq’s largest dam after retaking complete control of the strategic structure from Takfiri ISIL militants.

Iraqi troops and Kurdish Peshmerga forces backed by US airstrikes have managed to secure the area near Iraq’s largest dam after retaking complete control of the strategic structure from Takfiri ISIL militants.

“The Mosul dam has a strategic military importance being the main supply route between Mosul and the regions of Sinjar and Zumar, which are currently under the ISIL’s command. It gave the ISIL the capability of flooding Mosul and even parts of Baghdad, and drowning hundreds of thousands of Iraqis,” Serdar Doski, the commander of Kurdish Popular Defense Forces, told Press TV on Saturday.

He added, “ISIL is a well-trained and -equipped offspring of the US-nurtured al-Qaeda. They have been trained at the hands of bomb experts and are capable of remotely triggering bombs.”

According to Kurdish Peshmerga forces, even though the ISIL’s hold on Mosul dam has been broken, the battle is far from being over especially as the Kurds have some three tons of explosives to dismantle from the dam’s site.

Peshmerga forces are also trying to clear mines and booby traps from the area round the dam.

The strategically important facility had been seized by ISIL militants on August 7. It supplies water and electricity to northern Iraq and there had been fears the ISIL terrorists could use it to flood areas downstream.