Iraqi Joint Forces launched a new military operation to regain positions from the grip of ISIS extremist group on Thursday in the framework of the current military operations witnessed in the Iraqi city of Mousl which is considered the major stronghold of the extremist group in Iraq. Meanwhile, fighter jets, related to the Turkish air force, carried out air raids against PKK  in northern Iraq.
In a statement, the Turkish General Staff said the airstrikes were conducted in the Cukurca countryside and in Iraq’s Zap region, destroying four weapon emplacements, two caves and several shelters. The Turkish General Staff said the military had detected during an early morning air-backed operation in the Cukurca district of Hakkari province in southeastern Turkey that a group of terrorists was allegedly plotting an attack on an army base in the region.
Meanwhile, in a separate statement, the military said 148 Kurds had been killed since the beginning of this year. Seventy-seven of those were killed on Iraqi side of the border while 71 others were killed in Hakkari’s Semdilli, Cukurca and Yuksekova districts, the statement added.
Leader of Nineveh Operation Abdel Amir Yar-Allah said that the operation was initiated by the army divisions, consisting of the Ninth Armored Division and the 73rd Brigade of the 15th Division, and the federal police forces to break into the north of the city’s right bank areas, including Musheirefh, Kaneesa and Ahramat. Prime Minister Haider Abadi revealed, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, new plans to liberate the remaining cities under the control of ISIS in Nineveh province.
“Troops resumed its advance in the northwest of Mosul to reach the bank of the river [Tigris] and besiege al-Jisr al-Khamis region, north of the Old City,” Lt.Gen. Shaker Jawdat said in statements on Thursday. “Eight IS members, including a leader called Abu Huthaifa al-Hadidi, in charge of al-Zanjili and Ras al-Jadda regions, were killed,” he added.
In previous statements on Thursday, Jawdat said the troops were advancing from the northwestern axis towards Haramat area, and had recaptured Hassouna village and the “Nineveh gas lab”. A military commander told Reuters earlier that armed forces opened a new front against Islamic State in Mosul on Thursday, advancing on the militants’ enclave from the northwest.
The militants are now besieged in the northwestern corner of Mosul embracing the historic Old City centre and the Grand al-Nuri Mosque, from which the group’s supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi gave a famous sermon in 2014 declaring the establishment of the ‘caliphate’ in Iraq and Syria.
Spokesman for Baghdad operations, Brigadier General Saad Maan, said in a statement, " Directorate of Fight against Criminality of Baghdad arrested a person wanted by the Iraqi authorities in accusation of killing a person in the area of Husseiniya, northeast of Baghdad”
On the political side, Advisor to the Security Council of the Kurdistan region Masror Barzani said that the Kurdish leaders will not abandon the idea of holding a referendum in response to the desire of their opponents. He stressed the need for responding to the will of Kurds.
He added, during a speech at the Carnival of the Kurdistan Students Union to support the referendum in Erbil, that it is important to meet the desire of Kurds to achieve independence from Iraq, saying that the Kurds should not permanently be ruled by the others. He stressed that those people who aspire for gaining positions from another country should not advise Kurdistan’s leaders.