Iraq's war against IS terrorism | Updates and Discussions

[Hindustani78]

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1144726/middle-east

BAGHDAD: The UAE signaled its desire to strengthen ties with Iraq during weekend talks with influential Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr as part of efforts by Sunni nations of the Middle East to halt Iran’s growing regional influence.
Al-Sadr met Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy commander of the UAE armed forces on Sunday in Abu Dhabi, according to a senior aide of the cleric.

Al-Sadr also discussed ways of improving understanding between the Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam, at a meeting on Monday with a prominent Sunni cleric in Abu Dhabi.

“The two sides emphasized the importance to act in true Islamic spirit and reject violence and extremist thought,” Al-Sadr’s office in Baghdad said in a statement on his website on Monday, reporting on his meeting with Emirati cleric Ahmed Al-Kubaisi.

Closer ties with Al-Sadr, who commands a large following among the urban poor of Baghdad and southern Iraq, would help Sunni states loosen Tehran’s grip over Iraq’s Shiite community and contain its influence.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain severed relations with Qatar on June 5, accusing the major gas-exporting Gulf state of financing terrorism, meddling in the affairs of Arab countries and cozying up to their arch-rival Iran.
Al-Sadr is one of few Iraqi Shiite leaders to keep some distance from Iran. In April, he became the first Iraqi Shiite leader to call on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down, marking his difference with Iran and Iranian-backed Iraqi militias backing the Syrian regime.

“Experience has taught us to always call for what brings Arabs and Muslims together, and to reject the advocates of division,” the Abu Dhabi crown prince told Al-Sadr, according to report on the Emirati state-run news agency WAM.

The Iraqi cleric’s trip to Abu Dhabi comes two weeks after a visit to Saudi Arabia, where he met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Al-Sadr’s office said his meeting with Mohammed bin Salman at the end of July resulted in an agreement to study possible investments in Shiite regions of southern Iraq.

The Saudis will consider the possibility of opening a consulate in Iraq’s city of Najaf, it said. Al-Sadr also announced a Saudi decision to donate $10 million to help Iraqis displaced by the war on Daesh in Iraq, to be paid to the Iraqi government.

http://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/raids-shelling-kill-17-daesh-terrorists-in-tal-afar/884711

U.S.-led coalition warplanes and Iraqi forces pounded Daesh positions in the northwestern city of Tal Afar on Tuesday, killing at least 17 terrorists, according to an Iraqi military officer.

Lieutenant Colonel Shams al-Din al-Anbari said the attacks targeted Daesh arms depots and training sites in the city.

"At least 17 militants were killed and seven others injured," he told Anadolu Agency.

The Iraqi officer said Tuesday's attacks are part of a "plan to undermine Daesh fighting capabilities to make it easy for Iraqi forces to storm the city".

Iraqi forces are preparing to launch an offensive to recapture Tal Afar, a predominantly Turkmen city which was overrun by Daesh in mid-2014 along with vast swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq.

Last month, Iraqi forces dislodged Daesh from their last stronghold in Mosul, once Iraq’s second largest city.

 

[Hindustani78]

A handout picture released by the Iraqi Federal Police on August 15, 2017, shows Iraqi armoured units headed for the town of Tal Afar, the main remaining Islamic State (IS) group stronghold in the northern part of the country. (AFP Photo)

http://www.hindustantimes.com/world...y-spokesman/story-3E7D57lXFYjQ8MWx6cZ9hL.html

Iraqi forces are carrying out air strikes on Tal Afar, a town held by Islamic State west of Mosul, in preparation for a ground assault, an Iraqi military spokesman said on Tuesday.

Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate effectively collapsed last month, when U.S.-backed Iraqi forces completed the recapture of Mosul, the militants’ capital in northern Iraq, after a nine-month campaign.

Parts of Iraq and Syria remain however under Islamic State control, especially along the border.

Iraqi authorities had said Tal Afar, 80 km (50 miles) west of Mosul, will be the next target in the war on Islamic State, who swept through parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.

The town, which had about 200,000 residents before falling to Islamic State, experienced cycles of sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shi’ites after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and has produced some of Islamic State’s most senior commanders.

“The preparations are under way, there are strikes aimed at wearing them down and keeping them busy, targeting their command and control centers, their depots...these strikes have been going on for some time,” Iraqi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool said in a statement.

“We are waiting for the commander in chief of the armed forces (Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi)to give the orders for the liberation battle to start.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Baghdad-based al-Sumariya TV quoted Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Khodari as saying the ground attack should start after the aerial bombardment campaign.

Tal Afar has become the focus of a wider regional struggle for influence. Turkey, which claims affinity with Tal Afar’s predominantly ethnic Turkmen population, opposes the involvement of Shi’ite paramilitary groups fighting with Iraqi forces, some of which are backed by Iran.

One of Iraq’s senior military commanders, Major-General Najm al-Jabouri, told Reuters last month that between 1,500 and 2,000 militants were in Tal Afar, a figure which possibly includes some family members who support them.

The U.S.-led coalition is also keeping up its support to the Iraqi forces’ campaign to end the militants presence all over the country.

Coalition spokesman Colonel Ryad Dillon said last Thursday that the coalition carried out more than 50 strikes in the past week against Islamic State defensive positions, headquarters, weapons caches, and bomb factories in Tal Afar and also Kisik Junction to the east.

“We fully expect this to be a difficult fight to root out ISIS from one of their last strongholds in Iraq,” Dillon told a news briefing.

Jabouri had a different assessment of the battle, expecting a relatively easy victory because the militants and their families there are “worn out and demoralised”.

Islamic State has also lost swathes of Syrian territory to separate campaigns being waged by Syrian government forces backed by Russia and Iran and by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic (SDF) Forces, which is dominated by the Kurdish YPG militia. The SDF is currently focused on capturing Raqqa city from Islamic State.

(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Angus MacSwan)

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...-is-attacks-on-iraq-bases/article19504511.ece


BAGHDAD:, August 16, 2017 22:43 IST
Updated: August 16, 2017 22:46 IST

Militants stage 3 attacks on military bases
At least 10 security personnel were killed on Wednesday in three attacks by Islamic State (IS) militants on military bases in Iraq’s Salahudin province, an official said.

Six suicide bombers wearing explosive vests carried out a pre-dawn attack on military bases in Baiji town, about 200 km from here, leading to heavy clashes for several hours, Xinhua quoted the source as saying.

Fighting 2 suicide bombers
The clashes resulted in the killing of nine policemen and four suicide bombers, the source said, adding the clashes continued till afternoon as the police were still fighting two suicide bombers in the town.

The IS seized Baiji in June 2014, but the Iraqi security forces liberated the town in late 2015.

The liberation of the town gave the Iraqi forces complete control of the highway stretching from Baghdad to Baiji, and allowed forces to use Baiji as a launching pad for a further advance toward the IS stronghold in Mosul.

Baiji has been almost totally destroyed by previous battles despite more than a year-and-a-half of being freed from IS militants.

Inhabitants cannot return to the devastated town as security forces, including the Hashd Shaabi units, are stationed in some bases in the town.

IS militants attacked the posts of paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units in Zuwiyah area, about 30 km north of Baiji, but the forces fought back and prevented the group from taking the bases, the source said.

Initial reports said at least one Hashd Shaabi member was killed and three wounded.

The third attack occurred early in the morning on a Kurdish forces military base near Tuz-Khurmato town that left two Peshmerga fighters wounded and an IS militant dead and another wounded, the source said.

 

[TheCamelGuy]

Tal Afar OP has begun

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...t-urban-areas-of-tal-afar/article19539854.ece

Iraqi troops on Tuesday reached the first urban areas of the Islamic State-held northern town of Tal Afar on the third day of a multi-pronged operation, said a military commander.

U.S.-trained elite forces, known as the Counter Terrorism Service, entered the al-Kifah neighborhood on the southwest edge of town, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Rasheed Yar Allah, who commands the operation, said in a statement. He didn’t give more details.

Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil, of the Iraqi special forces, told The Associated Press that the advancing troops didn’t face tough resistance from IS fighters, though they did fire rockets, sent suicide car bombers and used roadside bombs.

Gen. Fadhil expected the fighting to get even heavier as they push into the town’s center which is about 4.5 km (about 3 miles) away. Civilians were not seen fleeing the area, he added.

The U.S.-backed operation was launched on Sunday, a month after Iraq declared victory over IS in Mosul, the country’s second largest city. Tal Afar, about 150 km (93 miles) east of the Syrian border, is in one of the last pockets of IS-held territory in Iraq.

Along with the special forces, Iraq’s regular army, militarized Federal Police and Shia-dominated paramilitary forces are taking part in the assault. Iraq’s state-run TV aired live footage showing pillars of smoke rising in the distance as military vehicles traveled through wide, arid areas.

Iraqi forces have driven IS from most of the major towns and cities seized by the militants in the summer of 2014, including Mosul, which was retaken after a grueling nine-month campaign.

But along with Tal Afar, the militants are still fully in control of the northern town of Hawija as well as Qaim, Rawa and Ana, in western Iraq near the Syrian border.


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http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...ad-says-is-are-on-the-run/article19540957.ece

Mr. Mattis described the extremists as being trapped in a military vise that will squeeze them on both sides of the Syria—Iraq border.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday he is confident that U.S.-backed Iraqi forces will finish off the Islamic State militants clinging to strongholds that are shrinking in size and number.

“ISIS is on the run,” Mr. Mattis told reporters after meeting with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and other Iraqi government leaders. “They have been shown to be unable to stand up to our team in combat.”

Mr. Mattis spoke alongside Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, who is due to finish his tour of duty here in early September.

“The fighting is tough,” Lt. Gen. Townsend said, “but the momentum is with our partners.”

Earlier, Mr. Mattis described the extremists as being trapped in a military vise that will squeeze them on both sides of the Syria—Iraq border.

Mr. Mattis had arrived in the Iraqi capital hours after President Donald Trump outlined a fresh approach to the stalemated war in Afghanistan. Mr. Trump also has pledged to take a more aggressive, effective approach against IS in Iraq and Syria, but he has yet to announce a strategy for that conflict that differs greatly from his predecessor’s.

The Pentagon chief told reporters before he left neighboring Jordan that the Middle Euphrates River Valley roughly from the western Iraqi city of al-Qaim to the eastern Syrian city of Der el-Zour will be liberated in time, as IS takes hit from both ends of the valley that bisects Iraq and Syria.

“You see, ISIS is now caught in-between converging forces,” he said, using an alternative acronym for the militant group that burst into western and northern Iraq in 2014 from Syria and held sway for more than two years. “So ISIS’s days are certainly numbered, but it’s not over yet and it’s not going to be over any time soon.”

Mr. Mattis referred to this area as “ISIS’s last stand.”

Unlike the war in Afghanistan, Iraq offers a more positive narrative for the White House, at least for now.

The ranking U.S. Air Force officer in Iraq, Brig. Gen. Andrew A. Croft, said that over the past few months, IS has lost much of its ability to command and control its forces.

“It’s less coordinated than it was before,” he said. “It appears more fractured flimsy is the word I would use.”

It seems likely that in coming months Mr. Trump may be in position to declare a victory of sorts in Iraq as IS fighters are marginalized and they lose their claim to be running a “caliphate” inside Iraq’s borders. Syria, on the other hand, is a murkier problem, even as IS loses ground there against U.S.-supported local fighters and Russian-backed Syrian government forces.

The U.S. role in Iraq parallels Afghanistan in some ways, starting with the basic tenet of enabling local government forces to fight rather than having U.S. troops do the fighting for them. That is unlikely to change in either country.

Although the Taliban is the main opposition force in Afghanistan, an IS affiliate has emerged there, too. In both countries, U.S. airpower is playing an important role in support of local forces, and the Pentagon is trying to facilitate the development of potent local air forces.

In Iraq, the political outlook is clouded by the same sectarian and ethnic divisions among Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish factions that have repeatedly undercut, and sometimes reversed, security gains following the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s government in 2003.

An immediate worry is a Kurdish independence referendum to be held Sept. 25. If that’s successful, it could upset a delicate political balance in Iraq and enflame tensions with Turkey, whose own Kurdish population has fought an insurgency against the central government for decades. McGurk reiterated U.S. opposition to holding the Iraqi Kurdish referendum.

With Iraqi troops on Tuesday reaching the first urban areas of the IS-held northern town of Tal Afar on the third day of an operation, Mr. Mattis has refused to predict victory. He said generals and senior officials should “just go silent” when troops are entering battle.

 

[Hindustani78]

Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) gather with Iraqi army on the outskirts of Tal Afar. — Reuters

http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/515766/World/Mena/Daesh

TAL AFAR — Iraqi forces advanced Wednesday toward central Tal Afar, one of Daesh (the so-called IS) group's last strongholds in the country, as aid workers braced for an exodus of civilians fleeing the fighting.

Armored personnel carriers full of soldiers and fighters of the Hashed Al-Shaabi paramilitary coalition moved into Al-Nur district early in the morning as warplanes flew overhead, said an AFP photographer on the ground.

They encountered trucks parked across roads with earthen embankments aimed at stopping them, as well as sniper fire and mortar shelling.

Six weeks after routing the militants from Iraq's second city Mosul, the Iraqi forces launched an assault Sunday on Tal Afar, where an estimated 1,000 militants are holed up.

They retook three first districts of the city on Tuesday, but as with the grueling nine-month campaign to recapture Mosul, their convoys face an onslaught of suicide and car bomb attacks.

On Wednesday they "entered the neighborhood of Al-Kifah North... and headed towards the centre of the city," said Ahmed Al-Assadi, spokesman for the Hashed Al-Shaabi paramilitary coalition fighting Daesh alongside the army and police.

"All the lines of Daesh defense outside the city have been broken and the troops are advancing from all directions towards the inner quarters of the city," he added.

As they advanced, troops said they discovered a network of underground tunnels used by the militants to launch attacks behind lines of already conquered territory, or to escape.

In a bid to counter these surprise attacks, the Iraqis dropped leaflets overnight calling on civilians to help by marking houses where the militants are located.

The International Organization for Migration said "thousands of civilians" had fled Tal Afar since the offensive began.

But around 30,000 civilians are trapped in the fighting, according to the United Nations.

Caught between the two sides, those still inside the city have been pounded by Iraqi and US-led coalition aircraft for weeks, as well as intense artillery fire since Sunday.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) fears they could be "used as human shields" and that "attempts to flee could result in executions and shootings," said the spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

The United Nations and aid agencies are working to establish shelters for the displaced.

Those who flee through desert areas face temperatures of up to 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit), sometimes for periods of more than 10 hours, putting them at risk of dehydration, said Viren Falcao of the Danish Refugee Council.

Tal Afar was once a key supply hub for Daesh between Mosul — which lies around 70 km (45 miles) to the east — and the Syrian border.

The Iraqi forces massed around Tal Afar on Tuesday before the militants responded with artillery fire.

Army, police and of the Hashed Al-Shaabi paramilitary coalition later took "full control" of the Al-Kifah, Al-Nur and Al-Askari districts, the Hashed said

The Iraqi forces had encircled the city despite what Hashed spokesman Assadi called "intense" fighting. He said the battle for the city would probably last weeks, in contrast to the months-long battle for Mosul.

After meeting Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi in Baghdad on Tuesday, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the militants were "on the run". — AFP

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Army commanders announce ‘liberation’ of Daesh-held Tal Afar’s Al-Tanak neighborhood

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1149606/middle-east

TAL AFAR: Iraqi forces on Wednesday recaptured several districts and advanced toward the center of Tal Afar.
Armored personnel carriers full of soldiers and fighters of the Hashed Al-Shaabi paramilitary coalition moved into Al-Nur district of southeast Tal Afar early in the morning.

An AFP photographer said spotters on the ground called in airstrikes to cover the advance. “Our morale is very high. We are confronting the men of IS (another name for Daesh), breaking their lines and destroying their arsenals,” said Lt. Col. Monzer Abed.

The pro-government forces encountered trucks parked across roads with earthen embankments aimed at stopping them, as well as sniper fire from rooftops and mortar shelling. Six weeks after routing the Daesh terrorists from Iraq’s second city Mosul, Iraqi forces launched an assault Sunday on Tal Afar, where an estimated 1,000 militants are holed up.

They first retook three districts of the city on Tuesday, but as with the grueling nine-month campaign to recapture Mosul, their convoys face an onslaught of suicide and car bomb attacks.

On Wednesday, they “entered the neighborhood of Al-Kifah North... and headed toward the center of the city,” said Ahmed Al-Assadi, spokesman for the Hashed Al-Shaabi.

The Hashed also announced the capture of the districts of Al-Tanak and Al-Sinaai in eastern Tal Afar.

As government forces advanced, troops said they discovered a network of underground tunnels used by the militants to launch attacks behind lines of already conquered territory, or to escape.

In a bid to counter these surprise attacks, the Iraqis dropped leaflets overnight calling on civilians to help by marking houses where the militants are located.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said “thousands of civilians” had fled Tal Afar since the offensive began. But around 30,000 civilians are trapped in the fighting, according to the UN.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) fears they could be “used as human shields” and that “attempts to flee could result in executions and shootings,” said the spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
The UN and aid agencies are working to establish shelters for the displaced.

 

[Hindustani78]

Northern Iraq August 15 2017

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1150156/middle-east
IRBIL: Iraqi forces made further gains in their offensive to dislodge Daesh from Tal Afar, seizing five more villages on the eastern and southern outskirts of the city, the military said on Thursday.

In the fifth day of their onslaught, Iraqi forces continued to encircle terrorists holding out in the city in far northwestern Iraq close to the Syrian border, according to statements from the Iraqi joint operations command.
Within the city limits, Iraqi forces captured three more neighborhoods — Al-Nour and Al-Mo’allameen in the east and Al-Wahda in the west, taking over several strategic buildings in the process.

The advances were the latest in the campaign to rout the militants from one of their last remaining strongholds in Iraq, three years after they seized wide swathes of the north and west in a shock offensive. On Tuesday, the army and counter-terrorism units broke into Tal Afar from the east and south.

The main forces taking part in the offensive are the Iraqi army, air force, Federal Police, the elite US-trained Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) and some units from the Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) that began encircling the city on Sunday.

About three quarters of Tal Afar remains under militant control including the Ottoman-era citadel at its center, according to an operational map published by the Iraqi military.

Sailors’ bodies recovered
The bodies of 20 Iraqi sailors have been recovered after their ship sank following a collision off the country’s southern coast, the Transport Ministry said.

The Al-Misbar sank in Iraqi waters on Saturday following the collision with a foreign-flagged vessel, after which eight sailors were rescued and the bodies of four others found.

The ministry said in a statement that 16 more bodies were found when the ship was raised on Thursday.
Iraqi authorities have ordered the foreign vessel impounded following the collision, which took place in the Khor Abdullah maritime canal between Iraq and Kuwait.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1150796/middle-east

BAGHDAD: Iraqi military officials said on Friday that the country’s forces have advanced into the center of the Daesh-held town of Tal Afar.

Iraqi spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool told the Associated Press that Iraqi forces took control of several neighborhoods as they advanced toward the center of town and are currently at the outskirts of the neighborhood of Al-Qalaa.

Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil of Iraq’s special forces said the US-led coalition provided air cover while Iraqi troops pushed into the town’s center. Clashes are ongoing with Daesh militants, he said.

Tal Afar is about 150 km from Syria’s border and it is among the last Daesh-held towns in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Iraqi military investigators said they discovered two mass graves near a former Daesh prison near Mosul containing the bodies of 500 victims of the group.

The Media Cell Security Investigation team said in a statement that one grave near the Badoush Prison site contained the bodies of 470 prisoners killed by Daesh. It said a second grave contained 30 victims. A security official said, preferring anonymity, most of the victims are believed to be Shiites or other minorities.

A massacre at Badoush Prison in June 2014 left 600 male inmates dead. A patch of scraped earth and tire tracks show the likely killing site, according to exclusive photos obtained by the imagery intelligence firm AllSource Analysis.

Separately, the spiritual leader of Iraq’s Shiite majority called on doctors from across Iraq to help civilians fleeing clashes in the latest fight against Daesh in Iraq.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani said medical workers should travel to areas around the battle for Tal Afar to help “to treat the wounded and treat them as a humanitarian, national and religious duty.”

 

[Hindustani78]

Government troops and units of the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary coalition, backed by a US-led coalition against IS, launched the assault on Sunday after weeks of coalition and Iraqi air strikes.

 

[Hindustani78]

Army Gen. Joseph Votel speaks to reporters at a base in Taji, Iraq, Friday, May 20, 2016. (File photo: AP)

 

[Hindustani78]

Aug 27, 2017 20:20 IST

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Iraqi forces backed by the Hashed Al-Shaabi advance towards the town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, after the Iraqi government announced the beginning of the operation to retake it from the control of the Islamic State (IS) group on August 22, 2017. From Iraq conflict to the Great American eclipse, photos of the week from around the globe. (Ahmad Al Rubaye/ AFP)

 

[Hindustani78]

Published — Sunday 27 August 2017
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1151666/middle-east

BAGHDAD: The Iraqi military says it has “fully liberated” Tal Afar’s town center from the Daesh group.

Pockets of resistance remain but the announcement brings Iraqi forces a step closer to taking full control of one of the extremists’ last strongholds in Iraq.

Sunday’s statement says troops have captured all of the town’s neighborhoods but are heading to Al-Ayadia district, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) northwest of Tal Afar, to pursue a group of militants who fled.

Last Sunday, US-backed Iraqi troops launched a multi-pronged operation to retake Tal Afar, a month after declaring Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, fully liberated. Tal Afar is about 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Syria’s border.

Militants still control the northern town of Hawija as well as Qaim, Rawa and Ana, in western Iraq near the Syrian border.

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1151821/middle-east
Published — Monday 28 August 2017
BAGHDAD: A car bomb ripped through a busy market area in eastern Baghdad on Monday morning, killing at least 12 people, Iraqi officials said.

The Daesh group quickly claimed responsibility in an online statement on its media arms, the Aamaq news agency.
The explosives-laden car went off at the wholesale Jamila market in Baghdad’s Shiite district of Sadr City, a police officer said. The explosion also wounded 28 other people, he added, saying the death toll was expected to rise further.

A medical official confirmed the casualty figures. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists.

A plume of thick black smoke billowed from the area and people were running away in panic. At the site, twisted metal and shards of glass littered the pavement, along with vegetables and other goods sold at the market.

“It was a thunderous explosion,” said Hussein Kadhim, a 35-year old porter and father of three who was wounded in his right leg. “It sounds that the security situation is still uncontrollable and I’m afraid that such bombings will make a comeback.”

At least one soldier was seen being evacuated from the scene, which was sealed off by security forces.

The bombing came as US-backed Iraqi forces are in final stages of recapturing the northern town of Tal Afar from Daesh, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Syria’s border.

On Sunday, Iraqi military said it had “fully liberated” Tal Afar’s town center from Daesh militants. On Monday, the troops fought at the outskirts of Al-Ayadia district, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) northwest of Tal Afar, where most of the militants fled.

Tal Afar was one of the few remaining towns in Iraq still in Daesh hands following the liberation of Mosul in July from the Daesh group. The Sunni militant group still controls the northern town of Hawija, as well as Qaim, Rawa and Ana, in western Iraq near the Syrian border.

Smoke rises from clashes during the war between Iraqi army and Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) against Daesh (the so-called IS) militants in Al-Ayadiya, northwest of Tal Afar, Monday. — Reuters

http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/516097/World/Mena/Daesh


BAGHDAD — More than 200 Daesh (the so-called IS) militants were killed in the southwestern direction of Tal Afar, which was handled by the army’s Counter-Terrorism Service, the Joint Operations Command announced.

In a statement on Sunday, the JOC said 217 militants and eight snipers were wounded. Twenty-one booby-trapped vehicle were destroyed, while three others were defused. in addition, 105 explosives and fifteen booby-trapped houses were defused. Six tunnels were filled. Several weapons, telecommunications devices and vehicles were seized.

Earlier in the day, the military media said government troops and allied paramilitary forces had retaken full control over the town in a seven-day offensive after Iraqi PM Haidar Al-Abadi announced in a televised speech on Aug. 20 the beginning of operations to recapture Tal Afar, which has been held by the militants since 2014, when the extremist group first emerged to proclaim its self-styled ‘caliphate’. This came after 40 days of declaring victory in Mosul, the group’s former capital, where operations lasted between October to July.

Up to 2,000 Daesh fighters are believed to remain in Tal Afar, Brig. Gen. Yehia Rasool, the JOC’s spokesperson, said in remarks last week. Iraqi troops, police and special forces, allied with the Hashed Al-Shaabi paramilitary coalition, took control of all districts inside Tal Afar on Sunday, a week after launching their latest offensive against an IS stronghold. — Agencies

Some of those inside Tal Afar were believed to have fled to Al-Ayadieh, located on the road between the city and the Syrian border, where they appeared to be making a desperate last stand. — Agencies

 

[T-55]

Popular Mobilization Units: Military Capabilities, Their Role In Iraq and Middle East