State-back Shia Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitary forces retook several villages in the Yazidi minority heartland of Shingal in northwestern Iraq including Kocho - a symbol of Islamic State atrocities - local media said on Thursday.
The military campaign is the second phase of a wider operation to recapture remaining areas from IS militants in Shingal, Kurdish broadcaster Rudaw reported.
While major offensives to flush IS out of Mosul by Iraq troops backed by the US-led coalition are continuing, Hashd forces are launching offensives in neighbouring districts including Shingal and the IS stronghold of al-Baaj, the IraqiNews website reported.
IS's 'emir' in Baaj was killed in an attack on the group's headquarters in central Baaj, IraqiNews cited sources from Ninveh as saying on Thursday.
The 'emir' was killed in airstrikes against a convoy on a rural road 10 kilometers from the district capital of Baaj which torched five vehicles, the sources said.
Most of the villages in Shingal's IS bastion of Qairawan have been re-taken by Hashd forces, who cut off a key IS supply line there, the Hatamiya-Kocho road, Rudaw reported on Thursday.
Kocho is the hometown of IS survivor and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador Nadia Murad. Thousands of Kocho residents were arrested and some were executed when the group overran Shingal in August 2014. The fate of other Kocho villagers remains unknown.
IS fighters systematically killed, captured and enslaved thousands of Shingal inhabitants in what the UN has said may have constituted attempted genocide.