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(CNN) -- U.S. airstrikes helped Kurdish and Iraqi forces take control of Mosul Dam on Monday, fighting back ISIS militants who had seized the dam, President Obama told reporters.
The stakes were huge for the millions of Iraqis who live downstream from the dam, the largest in the country.
"If that dam was breached it could have proven catastrophic, with floods that would have threatened the lives of thousands of civilians and endangered our embassy compound in Baghdad," the President said.
The dam has been the center of an intense battle in northern Iraq between the Islamic extremists and Kurdish forces that had been fighting to retake it since Saturday with U.S. air support.
A fighter with Kurdish forces known as the Peshmerga is on the front lines battling ISIS militants near Mosul on Monday, August 18. ISIS has taken over large swaths of northern and western Iraq as it seeks to create an Islamic caliphate that stretches from Syria to Iraq. 
A Shiite fighter defends a post while backing the Iraqi army in its fight against ISIS militants south of Baghdad on August 18. 
A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter patrols near the Mosul dam in Chamibarakat on Sunday, August 17. With the help of U.S. military airstrikes, Kurdish and Iraqi forces retook the strategic dam from ISIS militants. A breach of the dam would have been catastrophic for millions of Iraqis who lived downstream from it. 
Smoke rises near Mosul after a U.S. airstrike near the dam on August 17. 
A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter prepares his weapon on August 17 at a combat position near the Mosul dam in Chamibarakat. 
Trucks carrying Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters head to the Mosul dam on the Tigris River on August 17. 
The governor of Kirkuk and head of the security committee, Najm al-Din Omar, looks through binoculars toward Islamist Jihadist positions on August 17 from a position manned by the Kurdish Peshmerga south of the oil hub city of Kirkuk. 
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters stand behind a sand barricade set up close to the village of Bashir on August 17. 
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters fire at ISIS in Khazar, Iraq, on Thursday, August 14. 
Volunteers of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society unload boxes of goods before distributing them August 14 to families who fled from ISIS. 
Displaced Iraqis of the Yazidi faith reach for bottled water at the Bajid Kandala refugee camp in Iraq's Dohuk province on Wednesday, August 13. 
A Yazidi woman and children take shelter inside a tent at the Bajid Kandala camp on August 13. 
From the flight deck of the USS George H.W. Bush, which is in the Persian Gulf, two U.S. fighter jets take off for a mission in Iraq on Monday, August 11. U.S. President Barack Obama has authorized airstrikes against Islamic militants and food drops for Iraqis who are trapped by the militants. 
Displaced Iraqis of the Yazidi faith cross the Syria-Iraq border on Sunday, August 10. 
Iraqi soldiers fan out into a field in Jurf al Sakhr, Iraq, on August 10 after they reportedly pushed back Islamic jihadist fighters from the area. 
An Iraqi man inspects the debris of houses in Falluja, Iraq, after an apparent air raid by the Iraqi Air Force on August 10. 
An F/A-18C Hornet lands on the flight deck of the USS George H.W. Bush on August 10. 
An Iraqi Yazidi child, whose family fled their home a week ago when ISIS militants attacked their town, looks on at a makeshift shelter August 10 in Dohuk, which is in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region. 
Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community settle outside the Bajid Kandala camp on Saturday, August 9. 
Displaced Iraqis ride on a truck on a mountain road near the Turkish-Iraq border, outside Dahuk, on August 9. 
Thousands of Yazidis are escorted to safety by Kurdish Peshmerga forces and a People's Protection Unit in Mosul, Iraq, on August 9. 
Humanitarian aid for Iraq is loaded onto an aircraft in Norton, England, on Friday, August 8. 
Pallets of bottled water are loaded aboard a U.S. Air Force aircraft in preparation for a humanitarian airdrop over Iraq on August 8. 
Smoke rises after airstrikes targeted ISIS militants outside the Iraqi city of Irbil on Friday, August 8. 
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters take position on the front line on August 8. 
Displaced Iraqi Christians settle at St. Joseph Church in Irbil on Thursday, August 7. 
Iraqi Shiite volunteers who have joined government forces to fight ISIS take part in a training session near Basra, Iraq, on August 7. 
Thousands of Yazidi and Christian people flee Mosul on Wednesday, August 6, after the latest wave of ISIS advances. 
Kurdish Peshmerga forces and members of the Syrian People's Protection Units engage ISIS members in the Mahmudiye village of Mosul on Tuesday, August 5. 
Yazidi women who fled violence in Sinjar, Iraq, take shelter at a school in Dohuk on August 5. 
People in Mosul walk on the rubble of the destroyed Mosque of The Prophet Yunus, which is Arabic for Jonah, on Thursday, July 24. 
An Iraqi child walks through a displacement camp Saturday, June 28, in Khazair, Iraq. 
An Iraqi woman walks with her child outside of a displacement camp June 28 in Khazair. 
Peshmerga fighters check cars at the entrance of a temporary displacement camp in Khazair on Thursday, June 26. 
A group of women wait outside the temporary displacement camp in Khazair on June 26. 
Smoke rises in the Karakus district of Mosul as clashes between Iraqi forces and ISIS militants take place on June 26. 
Food is handed out at the displacement camp in Khazair. 
A child walks over discarded water bottles and trash at a registration area in the displacement camp in Khazair on June 26. 
Kurdish Peshmerga take their positions behind a wall on the front line of the conflict with ISIS militants in Tuz Khormato, Iraq, on Wednesday, June 25. 
Peshmerga fighters clean their weapons at a base in Tuz Khormato on June 25. 
Female Peshmerga between 18 and 45 years old form a special unit that is called to serve in any conditions. A soldier is pictured here on June 25. 
A woman gathers bread in a temporary displacement camp for Iraqis on Tuesday, June 24. 
An ISIS fighter takes control of a traffic intersection in Mosul on Sunday, June 22. 
An ISIS member distributes a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book, to a driver in Mosul on June 22. 
Members of ISIS patrol in Falluja on Saturday, June 21. 
"Peace Brigade" volunteers raise their weapons and chant slogans during a parade in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City on Saturday, June 21, in Baghdad. The armed group was formed to protect Shiite holy shrines against possible attacks by Sunni militants. 
Iraqi men register to fight alongside security forces Friday, June 20, at a recruitment center in Baghdad. 
New army recruits gather in Najaf, Iraq, on Wednesday, June 18, following a call for Iraqis to take up arms against Islamic militant fighters. 
Soldiers with an Iraqi anti-terrorism unit are on guard June 18 in Baghdad. 
A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter injured in clashes with ISIS lies in a hospital in Irbil on June 18. 
An MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter lands on the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday, June 17. 
Newly recruited Iraqi volunteer fighters take part in a training session in Karbala, Iraq, on June 17. 
Iraqi tribesmen gather in Baghdad on Monday, June 16, to show their readiness to join Iraqi security forces in the fight against Islamic militants. 
Iraqi Christian children gather inside the Church of the Virgin Mary for prayers in Bartala, Iraq, a town near Mosul, on Sunday, June 15. 
Shiite tribal fighters raise their weapons and chant slogans against ISIS in Basra on June 15. 
Members of ISIS prepare to execute some soldiers from Iraq's security forces in this image, one of many reportedly posted by the militant group online. CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of the images. 
A woman cradles her baby Thursday, June 12, at a temporary camp set up in Aski Kalak, Iraq, to shelter those fleeing the violence in northern Nineveh province. 
A girl fleeing from Mosul arrives at a Kurdish checkpoint on June 12. 
Iraqi men chant slogans outside of an army recruiting center to volunteer for military service June 12 in Baghdad. 
Kurdish Peshmerga forces, along with Iraqi special forces, deploy their troops and armored vehicles outside of Kirkuk, Iraq, on June 12. 
Children stand next to a burnt vehicle during clashes between Iraqi security forces and ISIS militants in Mosul on Tuesday, June 10. 
Civilians from Mosul escape to a refugee camp near Irbil on June 10. 
Iraqis fleeing the violence wait in their vehicles at a Kurdish checkpoint in Aski Kalak on June 10. Photos: Iraq under siege 
Kurdish forces fight for Mosul Dam 
U.S. airstrikes drive ISIS from Mosul dam 
ISIS storms town, captures 100 women 
Who are the Peshmerga? "The U.S. military used fighters, bombers, attack and unmanned aircraft to conduct 35 strikes, " said Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby. "We destroyed over 90 targets including a range of vehicles, equipment and fighting positions," he said.
Now that the dam is cleared of ISIS militants, Iraqi forces are moving to grow their area of control, the Pentagon said.
"This operation demonstrates that Iraqi and Kurdish forces are capable of working together and taking the fight to ISIS," Obama said. "If they continue to do so, they will have the strong support of the United States of America."
Taking the fight to ISIS
U.S. airstrikes may not be enough to do the job of ridding Iraq of ISIS forces, said retired Col. Cedric Leighton, a former Air Force intelligence officer.
"At the core of the mission is to get rid of ISIS," he said. "The U.S. cannot have a Middle East in which ISIS exists," he said.
The brutal attacks of ISIS militants as they took control of towns and villages in northern Iraq forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee.
"ISIS tells people to pay or convert," said one Christian man who fled ISIS forces.
A Christian village near Mosul Dam is almost deserted. Some of its residents fled just in time to a monastery in the mountains.
"We were afraid, terrified they'd call us infidels," a Christian woman there told CNN's Nick Paton Walsh. "My Muslim friend told me to just leave."
Now she said she hopes ISIS fighters won't reach the monastery.
The U.S. strategy in fighting ISIS is "to take out Isis' leadership, to degrade their operational capabilities, to cut off their financing sources," U.S State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Monday.
On several ISIS websites, the group posted a message Monday threatening that "America will disappear from the map soon on the hands of knights of al-Khilafa," a reference to the caliphate ISIS claims it wants to recapture.
Water in war
When ISIS militants seized the dam this month, many feared it could be used as a weapon.
Built in the early 1980s under former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the dam sits on the Tigris River about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the city of Mosul. It serves as a key source of electricity, irrigation and flood protection.
ISIS has a track record of attacking its enemies with water.
This year, its fighters opened the gates on the Falluja Dam in central Iraq after seizing it in an effort to stop an Iraqi military advance. The water from the dam flooded a number of villages.
"ISIS has already used other smaller dams to gain control of territory, to pressure Sunnis to support them and to punish the Shiites," Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum, told CNN this month.
The 3.2-kilometer-long Mosul Dam holds back as much as 12.5 million cubic meters of water, according to Engineering News-Record, a construction industry website.
If the structure were to give way, it would unleash a wall of water tens of feet tall that would race down the Tigris toward Mosul and its 1.7 million inhabitants. It would also bring flooding to major cities farther downstream, including Baghdad.
'Very poor foundation'
But even if the militant group doesn't try to destroy the dam, concerns remain about its sturdiness.
A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report in 2006 said that what made the dam especially dangerous was the risk of internal erosion of its foundations.
The structure is built on layers of soil that dissolve or erode in water.
The Army Corps said the dam was "constructed on a very poor foundation" that wasn't designed for the conditions.
Seepage has plagued the structure since the reservoir behind it was filled, according to a U.S. government report in 2007, and sinkholes have appeared near the structure, suggesting problems beneath the surface.
During the American military occupation of Iraq, U.S. authorities spent tens of millions of dollars on short-term repairs on the dam.
But with the immense structure now in the midst of a conflict zone, it remains unclear if it will get the maintenance it needs anytime soon.
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CNN's Anna Coren, Barbara Starr, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Henry Shirley and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.
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