Peshmerga Redeploy To Strategic Iraq Border Crossing

Kurdish Peshmerga forces on Monday redeployed from positions on Iraq's Sinjar-Dohuk highway to a nearby border crossing.



The Faysh Khabur crossing links the Duhok province in northern Iraq's Kurdish region to both Turkey and Syria.



"Peshmerga fighters have reclosed the main road linking Iraq's Sinjar district [held by Iraqi forces] to the [Peshmerga-held] city of Dohuk," Hassan al-Mousawi, an Iraqi army captain stationed in Sinjar, told Anadolu Agency.



According to al-Mousawi, Peshmerga fighters loyal to northern Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) had been withdrawn from Dohuk's Mahmoudiyah area and "redeployed to nearby areas".



The move, he said, had come after Baghdad dispatched fresh reinforcements to the northern region with a view to securing the Faysh Khabur crossing.



Peshmerga fighters had been sent to "other locations close to the crossing", he said, without providing any more details.



Recent Iraqi military deployments come within the context of ongoing operations -- launched last week -- aimed at securing parts of Iraq disputed between the central government in Baghdad and the Erbil-based KRG.



Last week, Iraqi forces moved into several disputed parts of the country, including the oil-rich Kirkuk province. -