Story highlights
- Black smoke darkens sky above Sinjar amid intense coalition strikes
- Push to take back the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar from ISIS begins
- Yazidi fighters have mobilized under the command of Kurdish Peshmerga
Sinjar, Iraq (CNN)Plumes of smoke blackened the sky above Sinjar as Kurdish forces, backed by intense coalition air support, tried Thursday to take back the northern Iraqi town from ISIS.
The
operation includes up to 7,500 Peshmergas -- the Kurdish military force
-- who are attacking the city from three sides to take control of
supply routes, according to the Kurdish Region Security Council .
CNN
senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is with one of the
three fronts of fighters who launched their liberation operation early
Thursday morning against a backdrop of airstrikes.
"A
pitch-black sky was lit up by a lot of coalition airstrikes following
days of bombing. At dawn, a large procession of Peshmerga started
snaking their way through Sinjar mountain and behind it," Paton Walsh
said.
The coalition strikes
were pounding the strategic city itself, he said, with four different
columns of smoke darkening the horizon above: "The strikes on Sinjar
almost make the sky over it look black. There's a vast amount of air
power -- more intense than the fight for Kobani."
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