Kurdish forces wrested control of Iraq’s strategically important Mosul dam from jihadi insurgents yesterday, after the US launched the most intensive day of air strikes since it began targeted intervention in the conflict 10 days ago. US President Barack Obama hailed the retaking of Iraq's largest dam as a "major step forward," in the fight against Islamist insurgents who have swept through the north of the country.

Although Kurdish peshmerga forces, with the support of US air power and Iraqi military on the ground, were still clearing pockets of resistance by fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, local officials said they had retaken the dam in the most significant defeat for Isis so far.

Iraqi and US officials feared that Isis could use the Mosul dam, three decades old and poorly maintained, as a weapon. Whoever controls the dam could cut off power or water to millions of Iraqis. If broken, the dam would destroy the northern city of Mosul and flood the capital, Baghdad.