Iraq: Sunni insurgents suffer heavy loss in US strike

US warplanes struck the positions of Sunni insurgents in the Kurdish enclave on Friday in the first US offensive in Iraq since President Obama had withdrawn troops in 2011.

After President Obama granted authority to the army to launch a strike on the extremist group's targets on Thursday, F-18 jet fighters took off from a US aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, and dropped laser-guided and ground-to-air missiles on fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Levants, or ISIL.

Around 200 militants were killed in the strikes, which also hit militant convoys en route to Kurdish province of Arbil. The ISIL has inflicted a serious defeat since sweeping through the region in June.

The strikes were mainly aimed at the militant group's most active artillery unit, the Muhammadiyah, fighting near Mahmur town in Arbil. The ISIL was forced to withdraw eight km back from Mahmur, which they had previously held under control, according to local sources.

Turkey's Incirlik base near Adana, in the South, was not used for the strike. The Turkish foreign ministry's sources confirmed that Turkish air space has not been opened to the operations.

Meanwhile, clashes has remained intensified in and around Mahmur between the Kurdish peshmerga forces and the militants from the al-Qaeda off-shoot, ISIL. The Iraqi military, reinforced by tribal fighters, launched a series of counter-attacks on the ISIL positions in Ramadi and Anbar.

The ISIL fighters have been battling to grab Al-Hadisa Dam in al-Anbar, the second largest dam in Iraq. Around 70 militants were killed in the clashes, but casualties were not reported for the Iraqi military. Iraq's largest dam in Mosul has been under ISIL control since June.