Iraq forces assault last IS bastion, advance on Kurds

There had been fears that the bitter dispute that has raged between the Baghdad government and Iraqi Kurdish leaders since they held a referendum for independence last month would hamper the campaign against the jihadists.

Iraqi forces have retaken more than 90 percent of the territory IS seized in the country in 2014, with the militants now confined to a stretch of the Euphrates Valley adjoining some of the last areas they still hold in Syria.

"The heroic legions are advancing into the last den of terrorism in Iraq to liberate Al-Qaim, Rawa and the surrounding villages and hamlets," Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said.

"They will all return to the arms of the motherland thanks to the determination and endurance of our fighting heroes," he added.

"The people of Daesh (IS) have no choice but to die or surrender."

The US-led coalition battling IS said it was "the last big fight" against the militants.

On the Syrian side of the border, Russian-backed government forces have been pushing down the Euphrates Valley while US-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters have been attacking the jihadists from the north.

The launch of the offensive against IS' last Iraqi redoubt comes with thousands of Iraqi federal troops and militia engaged in an operation to reassert federal control over thousands of square kilometers of territory long disputed with the Kurds.

Thursday, federal troops and allied paramilitaries stepped up that operation, assaulting Kurdish forces in a disputed oil-rich area of Ninevah province in the far north near the Turkish border, Kurdish authorities said.

"As of 6 a.m. [03:00 GMT], Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed PMF (Al-Hashd al-Shaabi -- Popular Mobilisation Forces) are shelling peshmerga positions from Zummar front, northwest Mosul, using heavy artillery," the top defense body of the autonomous Kurdish regional government said.

"They are advancing toward peshmerga positions."