ISIL terrorists set 3 Iraqi oil wells ablaze in Nineveh

ISIL Takfiri militants have torched at least three oil wells in Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh as Kurdish fighters continue to advance in the area.

A Kurdish Peshmerga commander said on Thursday that the ISIL Takfiri militants set on fire three large oil wells of the Ain Zalah oil field while retreating from positions they had lost to advancing Kurdish troops.

The Takfiri militants had seized the oil field earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the Kurdish Peshmerga forces captured a strategic mountain near the city of Zumar.

“This morning we captured mount Batana, which is a strategic point overlooking Zumar and Ain Zala,” the Peshmerga commander said, adding that the militants’ motivation for setting the oil wells on fire was to hinder the Kurdish fighters’ advance in the region.

The Kurdish Peshmerga forces also launched an offensive to push back ISIL militants from several villages, including Ayn Guwer and Mahmoudia, which are located near the Rabia border crossing with Syria.

Since early this year, Iraq has been facing growing militancy by the ISIL Takfiri terrorist group and its allied militants, who have taken over areas in the west and north of the country. The crisis has deteriorated since June, when the ISIL declared a so-called caliphate in the territories they have seized.

The ISIL terrorists have been committing heinous crimes in the areas they have taken, including the mass execution of civilians and Iraqi army forces.

The Iraqi army, backed by Kurdish forces and thousands of volunteers, is engaged in fierce fighting with the ISIL militants to push them out of the captured areas.