Kurdish troops launched offensives against the Islamic State jihadist group on three fronts in northern Iraq on Tuesday, senior officers told AFP.

Troops struck before dawn against a town on the Syrian border, north of jihadist-controlled second city Mosul, and south of key oil hub Kirkuk, the commanders said.

A senior source in the Kurdish peshmerga said troops had entered the town of Rabia on the border with Syria, after seizing the villages of As-Saudiyah and Mahmudiyah.

“Ground troops are now fighting in the centre of Rabia,” which lies about 100 kilometres (60 miles) northwest of Mosul.

He said peshmerga forces, backed by artillery and warplanes, were also attacking Zumar, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) northwest of the city, near the reservoir of Iraq’s largest dam, which has been a key battleground between the Kurds and the jihadists.