SINJAR, Iraq (AP) – The ousting of Islamic State group forces from the Iraqi town of Sinjar is being touted by Kurdish leaders as a major military victory. But commanders on the ground say the extremists largely withdrew, fleeing during a pause in airstrikes.
The capture of Sinjar by U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters last week did mark a significant gain against the extremists, cutting off a main supply route between Islamic State group territories in Iraq and Syria.
The fighters’ apparent escape suggests the Kurds’ priority was to seize the town -both for its strategic and symbolic value – not trap and crush the IS forces in it outright. IS’s tactical retreat also points to the pragmatism that the group can show when badly outgunned – a contrast to other cases when its jihadis fight to the death, usually during offensives when they aim to wreak as much damage as possible before being killed.
Over the weekend, Kurdish fighters walked casualty through the streets of Sinjar, a once-sleepy town at the foot of a mountain in the deserts near Iraq’s border with Syria. Streets were filled with rubble of collapsed homes, twisted metal and burned-out cars; but this was the destruction wreaked by clashes and airstrikes over more than a year since Islamic State group militants swept in and took over.
Though proceeded by heavy U.S. airstrikes, the actual capture of the town on Friday saw little fighting. While Kurdish officials claimed that hundreds of Islamic State fighters were killed, no bodies were immediately uncovered on Friday. As troops advanced through the town on foot, the only sound that could be heard was that of celebratory gun fire.