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 The assault was launched from the Makhmour area, to which
thousands of Iraqi troops have deployed in recent weeks, setting up
base alongside Kurdish and U.S. forces around 60 km south of Mosul.
Backed by air power from a U.S.-led coalition and by Kurdish
peshmerga forces, Iraqi troops advanced westwards, recapturing
several villages from the Islamist militants, according to multiple
military sources.
"The first phase of the Fatah (Conquest) Operation has been launched
at dawn to liberate Nineveh, raising the Iraqi flag in several
villages," said a military statement cited by state TV.
Iraqi officials say they will retake Mosul this year but, in
private, many question whether the army, which partially collapsed
when Islamic State overran a third of the country in June 2014, will
be ready in time.
 The city, home to 2 million people before being taken over by the
ultra-hardline jihadist group, is by far the largest center it
controls in either Iraq or Syria, and is still heavily populated,
complicating efforts to retake it.
The military statement urged civilians to stay away from buildings
used by the insurgents, warning that they would be targeted in days
to come.
"Iraqi security forces in Makhmour ... are beginning to expand the
forward line of troops," said Colonel Steve Warren, a Baghdad-based
spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition.
Makhmour is located in a strategic triangle of territory between
Islamic State's core area of control in northwestern Iraq and the
Hawija area, from which the militants have threatened oil
installations around Kirkuk.
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Thursday's advance brings Iraqi forces closer to the oil town of
Qayyara on the banks of the river Tigris, control over which would
help to isolate Hawija from Mosul.
A Shi'ite militia leader met Kurdish peshmerga commanders last week
to discuss plans to push the insurgents out of the Hawija area
together with the Iraqi army.
The offensive should also reduce the threat to the base in Makhmour,
which has come under repeated attack from Islamic State, resulting
in the death of a U.S. Marine last week.
The Iraqi military statement named the villages recaptured as
al-Nasr, Garmandi, Kudila and Khurburdan.
(Writing by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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