WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — "Global Coalition warplanes attacked 17 ISIL [Daesh] positions in support of Peshmerga forces," the statement said.
The strikes destroyed several car bombs while the counter-explosives teams continue to work on clearing the heavily-mined area, the General Command noted.
During the first day of the Mosul offensive, the Kurdish Peshmerga forces liberated nine villages in the vicinity of Mosul, including Baskhira, Tarjala and Shaquli, according to the statement.
In addition, the Peshmerga secured a significant stretch of the road connecting Mosul with Erbil.
Earlier on Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi announced the start of the military operation to retake Mosul from the Daesh. Iraqi troops and their allies, including local Sunni militias as well as Kurdish forces, are involved in the offensive.
The US-led coalition is supporting the Iraqi Security Forces with air support, artillery, intelligence, advisors and forward air controllers, according to the US Central Command.
The Daesh jihadist group, outlawed in Russia, seized Mosul, Iraq’s second biggest city, in 2014 along with a number of other northern and western Iraqi cities and towns.
