Daesh ousted from Baaj town
baghdad — Shia paramilitaries have captured the Iraqi town of Baaj from Daesh, further shrinking the northern region under militant control as part of a US-backed campaign to retake the city of Mosul, the Iraqi military said on Sunday.
Eight months into the Mosul offensive, Daesh militants have been dislodged from all of the city except an enclave along the western bank of the Tigris river.
Daesh’s grip on the Iraqi side of the northern region along the border with Syria, a desert area where Iraqi and US sources believe Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi is hiding, has been ebbing as forces fighting on the side of Iraq’s government have advanced.
The Iraqi air force provided cover for the thrust into Baaj of the Shia paramilitaries known as Popular Mobilisation, said a statement from the Iraqi joint operations command.
Popular Mobilisation is steered by neighbouring Shia country Iran, an adversary of the United States, but is playing a part in the campaign to defeat Daesh, an enemy of both, in Mosul and the surrounding province of Nineveh.
Iraqi government armed forces are focusing their effort on dislodging insurgents from remaining pockets in Mosul, since 2014 Daesh’s de-facto capital in Iraq.
While reporting nominally to Iraq’s Shaesh-led government, Popular Mobilisation has Iranian military advisers, one of whom died last month fighting near Baaj.
Securing border territory between Iraq and Syria is important for Iran to reopen a land route to supply Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s army with weapons in his protracted war with rebels and militants.
A statement published by Popular Mobilisation announcing the capture of Baaj came from Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis, a prominent leader of the paramilitary with longstanding ties to Iran.
Iran has helped to train and organise thousands of Shia militiamen from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan in Syria’s war. —