from Islamic State (IS) militants, US President Barack Obama has said.
Mr Obama said the US helped in the operation. Air strikes targeted IS
around the dam, Iraq's largest.
The statement followed Iraqi claims that the dam had been "fully
cleansed", but IS said it was still in control.
Separately, Pope Francis said military action to stop IS attacking
religious minorities should be agreed by the UN.
He said intervention should not be carried out by "one nation alone".
BBC Rome correspondent Alan Johnston says that up until now the Pope
has taken a resolutely pacifist view, but on this occasion he seemed a
little less emphatic in his opposition to a more muscular approach.
Christians have been among religious groups persecuted by IS since the
militants captured a swathe of north-western Iraq.
The Pope said he was considering a visit to the region to show
solidarity with its Christians.
At the scene: Paul Wood, BBC News, near the Mosul Dam
We drove towards the dam, following a path cleared by the Kurdish
forces. Until a few days ago, the road, and the villages either side
were in the hands of Islamic State. There were several burnt-out
vehicles and blackened buildings, evidence of the fighting, and that
the jihadists did not leave easily.
We reached a Kurdish forward artillery position. The jihadists were
just two miles (3km) away from the battery, the soldiers said. They
fired a Grad rocket launcher to push them back still further.
A plume of smoke of the horizon was a village burning, set alight by
the jihadists as they retreated, a Kurdish special forces officer told
me. He was confident they had Islamic State was on the run. Shortly
after he told us this, a mortar shell came in, landing about 50m
(160ft) away in the soft earth.
"Don't worry, they're running out of ammunition," said the officer.
Five minutes later, another round landed. We decided to leave.
Still, the Kurds are making progress - assisted by American air power
overhead. The recapture of the dam - when finally confirmed - would be
the most significant victory yet in the battle against Islamic State.
The fight for the city of Mosul itself will, of course, be much, much
harder. And the Mosul dam is just one of many battlefronts against
Islamic State throughout Iraq.
US support 'limited'
The dam, captured by IS on 7 August, is of huge strategic significance.
Located on the River Tigris about 50km (30 miles) upstream from the
city of Mosul, it controls the water and power supply to a large
surrounding area in northern Iraq.
Earlier, Kurdish officials said the Peshmerga had recaptured most of
the area around the dam, but still had more to do to achieve full
control.
They said IS fighters had put up stiff resistance, and had planted
many roadside bombs and other explosive devices, which their special
forces were now trying to clear as they moved through the complex.
In support of the Peshmerga operation, US bombers, fighter jets and
unmanned drones carried out a total of 25 air strikes over the
weekend, hitting more than 30 IS vehicles and a checkpoint, the
Pentagon said.
On Monday the US military said 15 more air strikes had been carried
out involving fighter jets, bombers and drones targeting IS positions
and vehicles near the dam.
The US government has said its deployment of air power in support of
the Kurdish forces will be "limited in scope and duration".
In a letter to Congress on Sunday, the White House stressed the vital
nature of the Mosul dam, saying that if it were breached it could
cause massive loss of civilian life, and even threaten the US embassy
in Baghdad.
On Monday, the UK said its mission in Iraq would be stepped up to go
beyond the provision of humanitarian aid.
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said the mission could last for
months and now involved the transport of ammunition and weapons from
third countries to the Peshmerga.
Mr Fallon also said British warplanes were flying deeper into Iraq, to
gather intelligence about IS positions.
The BBC's Jim Muir, who is in the northern city of Irbil, says Kurdish
forces are planning to advance eastwards from the Mosul Dam to the
plains of Nineveh and westwards towards Sinjar.
Thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority were forced to
flee Sinjar when jihadists overran the town two weeks ago, prompting
an international aid operation and helping to trigger the US air
strikes.
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