Washington: US-led forces attacked Daesh targets yesterday with 13 air strikes in Iraq and three in Syria, using fighter, bomber and other aircraft, the US military said.

Four of the Iraq strikes were near Sinjar in northern Iraq, which destroyed Daesh buildings, tactical units and vehicles. Other Iraqi cities targeted included Tal Afar, Ramadi, Mosul and Baiji, according to the Combined Joint Task Force.

The strikes in Syria focused around the contested city of Kobani near the Turkish border, it said in a statement.

Meanwhile Kurdish Peshmerga forces delivered aid on Mount Sinjar on Saturday and expanded a major offensive against militant groups holding areas in northwestern Iraq after breaking a months-old siege.

The Peshmerga closed in on Sinjar town south of the mountain and Tal Afar to its east. If successful, the move would significantly alter the map of the Daesh militant group’s self-declared cross-border “caliphate” and isolate its Mosul hub.

The autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region’s Peshmerga troops reached the flanks of Mount Sinjar with food and other aid three days after launching a vast operation in the region backed by US-led coalition air strikes.

As the convoy worked its way up the mountain, a 60-kilometre-long ridge where civilians and fighters had been trapped since September, people swarmed vehicles to get food. “I haven’t seen an orange since September,” said a 10-year-old girl as the Peshmerga distributed fruit and other food.

Barzani visit

The civilians, some of whom had sought refuge on Sinjar after being displaced from nearby villages by Daesh fighters, looked exhausted, their skin sunburnt and clothes caked in dirt.

“We had barely received any aid in 75 days. It stopped coming when the Islamic State [Daesh] cut the road,” said Hassan Khalaf, a gaunt 45-year-old.

“What we need now is aid. We want them to save us,” he told an AFP journalist travelling with the Peshmerga convoy.

Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani hailed victories over the Daesh during a visit on Sunday to Mount Sinjar, which had been besieged by the militants for months.

“During the past 48 hours, the Peshmerga opened two main routes to Mount Sinjar,” Barzani said, adding: “We did not expect to achieve all these victories.”

In addition to breaking through to the mountain, “a large part of the centre of the town of Sinjar was also liberated,” he said, referring to the district’s main settlement to the south of the mountain.

The Kurdish regional president said the Peshmerga might participate in an operation to retake Mosul itself.

“We will take part if the Iraqi government asks us, and of course we will have our conditions,” he said, without specifying what they would be.