ISIS seizes hydroelectric dam in Iraq

Fighters with the militant group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria reached the triangle border between Iraq, Syria and Turkey, it said in a message posted on Twitter on Sunday, CNN reported.

ISIS took control of Iraq's largest hydroelectric dam on Iraq's Tigris River, which provides power to the city of Mosul about 50 kilometers (31 miles) to the south, the commander of the Peshmerga Kurdish fighters who had been defending the facility said Sunday.

The dam workers remained inside the facility, which fell after a 24-hour battle, Lt. Col. Herash said.

ISIS -- known for killing dozens of people at a time, while carrying out public executions, crucifixions and other acts -- has taken over several cities as it seeks to create an Islamic caliphate that encompasses parts of Iraq and Syria.

Daniel Pipes, the president of the Middle East Forum, said seizing dams is a tactic the group uses to gain control of a town and its people.

No dam, however, is as formidable or as important to Iraq as the one in Mosul.

"If you control the Mosul Dam, you can threaten just about everybody," Pipes told CNN's Jonathan Mann.

Pipes said the militant group now has the potential to create a flood so massive and catastrophic that it would not only cause death, destruction and chaos locally in the city of Mosul, but more than 450 kilometers (280 miles) away in Baghdad as well.