Daily Times

MOSUL: United States lead coalition soldiers were spotted keeping a watch in a village east of Mosul on Sunday.

The servicemen from the US-led coalition were seen near the frontline of an offensive launched by Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq that aimed to retake a handful of villages from Islamic State east of their Mosul stronghold. According to Reuters, these people were seen loading armored vehicles outside the village of Hassan Shami, a few miles east of the frontline. They also told the people present on site to not take any photographs. They spoke in English but their nationality could not be authenticated. Earlier some reports said that they were American but this could not be officially confirmed either.

US army colonel Steve Warren and the spokesman for the US-led coalition in Baghdad said, “US and coalition forces are conducting advice and assist operations to help Kurdish Peshmerga forces.” The Peshmerga forces launched an attack to capture a group of villages located about 20 km (13 miles) east of Mosul alongside the road to the Kurdish capital Erbil in the early hours of Sunday. Gunfire and airstrikes could be heard at a distance, while Apache helicopters could be seen flying overhead. A Kurdish officer Akram Mohammed said that the importance of liberating these villages is that it’s a first step getting closer to Mosul.  “It’s also to push ISIS threat away from the Kurdish area,” he added.