A major offensive by Kurdish Peshmerga fighters has driven IS forces out from the center of the town of Sinjar, following the end of the siege of nearby Mount Sinjar on Friday after months of fighting.

A "large area" of the northern Iraqi town is now in the hands of Iraqi Kurdish forces, said the region's president Masoud Barzani during a visit to nearby Mount Sinjar on Sunday.

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"Most of Sinjar is under our control now. With the help of God we will free all of it. The help of the coalition forces was noteworthy and their support was very effective," announced Barzani.

A statement from Kurdistan's national security council said that up to 300 IS militants were killed since the counter-attack began on Wednesday. The ground offensive by more than 8,000 Peshmerga fighters, backed by intensified airstrikes from US-led coalition warplanes, opened a corridor allowing refugees trapped in the mountain to leave.

The IS has controlled the area since August. Fearing slaughter, thousands of people mainly Yazidis took refuge on Mount Sinjar where they were sheltered in five camps for months with no running water or electricity.

The Yazidis belong to one of Iraq's oldest minorities and it was partly their plight that helped draw attention to the humanitarian aspect of the conflict and spurred US President Barack Obama and the international community into action against the IS.

With the breakthrough on Mount Sinjar on Friday, supply convoys are now able to reach the refugees still in the camps. Most are eager to return to their liberated villages and farms, but Kurdish authorities warn of booby traps and bombs left behind by the IS. There are still pockets of resistance around the town of Sinjar where the IS carry out suicide bombing attacks against the Peshmerga.

The end of the siege on the mountain and the retaking of most of the town of Sinjar are seen as major triumphs for the regional Iraqi Kurdish forces.

The eventual capture of Sinjar would also be an important strategic victory for the central Iraqi government as the area lies in the supply route between IS territory in Syria and Mosul, Iraq's second largest city which fell to the hands of IS forces in June.

TagsKurdish peshmerga, Mount Sinjar, Barzani, Barack Obama