ERBIL: Kurdish fighters said they had taken the town of Bashiqa near Mosul from Islamic State on Sunday as coalition forces pressed their offensive against the jihadists’ last stronghold in Iraq.

Masoud Barzani, President of the Iraqi Kurdish region, told US Defense Secretary Ash Carter that the Kurds had succeeded in liberating Bashiqa from Islamic State.

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters told reporters at the scene that they had entered Bashiqa. Journalists were not being allowed into the town, which lies 12 km (8 miles) northeast of Mosul.

The offensive to take Mosul, by Iraqi and Kurdish forces backed by a US-led coalition, is expected to become the biggest battle in the country since the US-led invasion in 2003.

The capture of Bashiqa, if confirmed, would mark the removal of one more obstacle on the road to the northern city.