Iraq recaptures Tal Afar center, citadel from Daesh terrorists
TAL AFAR: Iraqi forces announced Saturday the ouster of Daesh militants from central Tal Afar and its historic citadel, leaving them poised to fully recapture one of the last Daesh urban strongholds in the country.
The advance, less than a week into an assault on the strategic city, comes after Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi declared victory in July over the terrorists in Iraq’s second city Mosul, where Daesh declared its “caliphate” in 2014.
It came on the day of a visit to Baghdad by the French foreign and defense ministers, during which a loan of $512 million was announced to help the Iraqi economy in the face of low oil prices and the cost of battling the extremists.
“Units of the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) liberated the Citadel and Basatin districts and raised the Iraqi flag on top of the citadel,” said operation Commander Gen. Abdulamir Yarallah.
The CTS and federal police units also seized three northern districts and Al-Rabia neighborhood west of the citadel, after retaking the district of Al-Taliaa to the south on Friday.
On Saturday, they battled Daesh fighters around Al-Ayadieh, 15 km north of Tal Afar and strategically located on the road between the city and the Syrian border, said Yarallah.
Columns of smoke could be seen rising over the city after Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi paramilitary coalition fighting alongside government troops seized Al-Khadra and Al-Jazeera districts.
Abbas Radhi, an Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi fighter, said Daesh had resisted the advance mostly with sniper fire. “There are also booby-trapped cars, mortars. But they’ve been defeated, God willing,” he said.
Government troops and units of Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi, backed by a US-led coalition against Daesh, launched the assault last Sunday after weeks of coalition and Iraqi airstrikes.
Officials have said they hope to announce victory in Tal Afar by Eid Al-Adha, set to start in Iraq on Sept. 2.
Until its takeover by Daesh, Tal Afar was largely populated by Shiite Turkmen, whose beliefs are anathema to the Daesh terrorists.
Most of the city’s 200,000-strong population fled after Daesh seized it.
Pro-government forces faced an obstacle course of roads blocked with earth embankments and strategically parked trucks, as well as sniper fire and mortar shelling.
Troops also said they discovered a network of underground tunnels used by Daesh to launch attacks behind lines of already conquered territory, or to escape.