Kurdish peshmerga fighters said they had fully wrested control of Iraq's largest dam away from "Islamic State" (IS) fighters on Sunday, following an advance that had begun in the early morning hours. The victory was also reported by Kurdish officials and Iraqi media.

"Mosul Dam was liberated completely," Ali Awni, an official from Iraq's main Kurdish party, told the news agency AFP.

Initial reports had indicated that fighting continued as IS fighters remained in the area.

On Saturday night, the US military launched nine airstrikes to clear the way for the Kurdish fighters, hitting vehicles and personnel. The peshmerga advance was slowed throughout the day by roadside bombs.

IS fighters seized control of the dam on August 7, raising fears that they would use it as a weapon by threatening to flood as far as Iraq's capital. However, as the dam lies on the Tigris River some 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Mosul, which is under IS control, such a move would at present prove counterproductive.

Steinmeier: Iraq should remain unified

In an interview published on Sunday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier emphasized the importance of helping Iraq defend itself so that it might stabilize politically and remain one unified state.

The key to peace in Iraq was "the formation of a new government ... in which all regions and religions find themselves again and which defend themselves effectively against [IS]," Steinmeier told the German weekly Bild am Sonntag.

During Steinmeier's visit to Iraq over the weekend, the first of four shipments of humanitarian aid from Germany arrived in the northern city of Irbil. Steinmeier noted that Germany "wasn't ruling anything out," but, as far as an EU arms agreement was concerned, the country would have to first assess the military needs of the Kurdish fighters before agreeing to send any weapons to the region.

The lightning advance of IS militants this summer flourished in part because of a political system weakened by a government that had overwhelmingly favored the country's majority Shiite Muslim population. Reversing the distrust and resentment among the minority Sunni and Kurdish populations now plays as important a role in the search for a solution toward a peaceful Iraq as the military solutions needed to drive out IS.

When asked if Iraq's already autonomous Kurdish region would emerge as an independent state, the German foreign minister warned that such a move could prove counterproductive.

"An independent Kurdish state would further destabilize the region and give rise to new tensions, possibly with Iraq's neighboring countries," he said.

Much of the recent fighting has taken place in Iraqi Kurdistan. The IS takeover of towns has driven out much of the local Christian and Yazidi populations. The news agency Reuters reported on Sunday that Kurdish forces have been training Yazidi recruits for the conflict.

kms/mkg (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)