Security forces recapture 4 villages near Mosul, repel 2 IS attacks in northern Iraq

Iraqi security forces on Saturday fought Islamic State (IS) militants near the city of Mosul and liberated four villages, while the troops repelled two IS attacks in south and west of the city, security sources said.

The army's 16th infantry Division fought the IS militants in north of Mosul and freed the villages of Qara-Tappa, Kori Ghriban, Darawish and Abu Jarbou'a after driving out the extremist militants, Lieutenant General Abdul-Amir Yarallah from the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi army repelled another attack by dozens of IS militants who stormed in the early hours of the day the military positions in the eastern side of the Tigris River at Shirqat area, some 120 km south of Mosul, killing many IS militants and destroying two suicide car bombs, Yarallah said in another statement.

Separately, dozens of IS militants carried out an attack on the positions of the paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units in Tal al-Zalat area in west of the city of Mosul, but were repelled by the units, destroying two suicide truck bombs before reaching their targets and seizing a third, while many IS militants were killed, a Hashd Shaabi statement said.

The presence of the Hashd Shaabi units near Tal Afar enabled them to cut off IS supply routes from the west side of Mosul, and allowed both the paramilitary units and other Iraqi and Kurdish security forces to entirely isolate and surround Mosul.

The units' presence in the whole area in west of Mosul would also enable them to secure the border areas between Iraq and neighboring Syria and would cut off the IS supply routes between Mosul and the Syrian city of Raqqa, the capital of IS self-declared caliphate.

On Friday, a report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that the operations to dislodge IS group from its stronghold of Mosul, have pushed some 77,826 civilians to flee their homes in the city and its adjacent districts and the number went up every day.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Oct. 17 announced a major offensive to retake Mosul, the country's second largest city.

Since then, the Iraqi security forces have inched to the eastern fringes of Mosul and made progress on other routes around the city.

Mosul, some 400 km north of Iraqi capital of Baghdad, has been under the IS control since June 2014, when Iraqi government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions. Endit