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Iraqi forces recapture 11 villages around Mosul

Xinhua, October 31, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Iraqi security forces on Sunday retook control of 11 villages from the Islamic State (IS) group around the group's stronghold of Mosul, as major anti-IS offensive continued to seize more ground around the city, a security source told Xinhua.

The paramilitary units of Hashd Shaabi continued their operation launched on Saturday to advance in the vast rugged land in southwest of Mosul toward the town of Tal-Afar, some 70 km west of Mosul, a statement by the Hashd Shaabi's media office said.

The paramilitary units backed by the Iraqi aircraft managed during the day to free eight villages located in southwest of Mosul after sporadic clashes with IS militants, according to the statement.

Tal Afar, which used to have majority of both Sunni and Shiite Turkoman villagers as well as other minorities of Kurds and Arabs, fell to IS in 2014.

The operation of the pre-dominantly Shiite paramilitary units is designed to cut off the supply lines between Mosul and neighboring Syria, but such advance in the ethnically mixed region where Sunni Muslims form a majority could spark sectarian tension with Sunni Arabs and neighboring Sunni state of Turkey.

Separately, Iraqi army forces freed the village of Ali Rash, some 20 km east of Mosul, and raised the Iraqi flag on its buildings after driving out the IS militants, a source from the Operations Command of Nineveh Liberation told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Also in the day, Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces freed the villages of Kanona and Rozbian near the IS-held town of Bashiqah, some 20 km northeast of Mosul, a Kurdish security source anonymously told Xinhua.

On Oct. 17, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is also the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi forces, announced the start of a major offensive to retake Mosul, the country's second largest city.

So far, the Iraqi security forces have inched to the eastern fringes of Mosul and made progress on other routes around the city, preparing for the major battle to storm the city and drive out the IS militants.

Mosul, some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, has been under IS control since June 2014, when Iraqi government forces abandoned their weapons and fled. Endit