Shirqat offensive (2016)

The Shirqat offensive, codenamed Operation Conquest or Operation Fatah, was an offensive against the positions of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in and around the district of Al-Shirqat District to reach the city of Mosul.

The offensive was a joint effort by the Iraqi government forces with allied militias, local Assyrian, Yezidi, Turkmen and Armenian militias, as well as Peshmerga and US and UK air support and limited ground forces. The aim of the operation, part of the military intervention against ISIL, was to set the conditions for an upcoming battle to push ISIL out of the second-largest city of Iraq, as well as the rest of the Nineveh Governorate. The operation followed the Mosul offensive in 2015, which successfully recaptured parts of the region northwest of Mosul, but stopped short of breaching the city itself, for various reasons.

Early in the morning of 21 October 2016, on the fifth day of the Mosul offensive, dozens of ISIL fighters assaulted the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, 175 kilometers (110 mi) from Mosul. After entering the city, ISIL members split up into groups of three to five fighters and spread out to five areas in the city after infiltrating on foot, and the battle lasted into the evening. By 22 October 2016, four of the five areas had been secured, with ISIL fighters remaining alive in the Dumez district. The strategy by Islamic State seems to have only been partially effective, as although it diverted media attention from the Mosul offensive, none of the forces used to repel the ISIL fighters came from the Mosul offensive.