Iraqi forces in final assault to take Hawija

BAGHDAD: Iraqi forces launched a final assault on Wednesday to capture Hawija, one of two pockets of territory in Iraq still under Daesh control, entering the town’s outskirts after several hours of fighting, military commanders said.

Iraqi state TV broadcast live footage showing the area covered by thick black smoke, which rose from oil wells torched by the militants as a tactic to prevent detection from the air. Hawija is located near the oil city of Kirkuk, in northern Iraq.

Seven hours into the operation, Iraqi forces riding in armored vehicles and under helicopter cover broke into the Askari and Nidaa neighborhoods on the western side of the city, a military commander told Reuters.

The offensive on Hawija is being carried out by US-backed Iraqi government troops and Iraniantrained and armed Shiite paramilitary groups known as Popular Mobilization.

“The army, the Federal Police, the Emergency Response division and Popular Mobilization stormed Hawija, inflicting human and material losses onto the enemy, and progress is continuing,” said a statement from the joint operations commander, Lt. Gen. Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah.

They began moving on the town of Hawija two days after capturing the Rashad air base, 30 km to the south and used by the militants as a training and logistics site.

Iraq launched an offensive on Sept. 21 to dislodge Daesh from Hawija and surrounding areas where up to 78,000 people could be trapped, according to the UN.