Iraqi forces achieved notable advance in Tal Affar

Iraqi forces closed in Monday on Tal Afar on the second day of an offensive against the last major bastion of Daesh in the country’s north, seizing several villages around the city. In the desert plains around Tal Afar, convoys of tanks and armored vehicles could be seen heading for the terrorist-held city, raising huge clouds of dust.

The offensive launched at dawn Sunday comes only weeks after Iraqi forces retook second city Mosul from Daesh and as the extremists also face assaults on their positions in neighboring Syria. Tal Afar was once a major supply hub between Mosul and the Syrian border and capturing it would be another major blow to Daesh’s self-declared “caliphate” that once controlled large areas straddling Syria and Iraq.

The Iraqi Army, federal police and counter-terrorism forces backed by 20,000 fighters from the Hashed Al-Shaabi paramilitary group launched the offensive on Tal Afar. They are battling Daesh on three fronts — the west, south and southeast — and commanders have told AFP they expect to tighten the noose on the militants by edging closer to the gates of the city.

The federal police said its forces had retaken five villages on the western front, with its chief Raed Shakir Jawdat saying they were only “a few hundred meters from Al-Kifah,” the nearest western neighborhood of the city.

Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Rasheed Yar Allah, who commands the operation, stated that the forces had recaptured a series of villages east, southwest and northwest of town. Iraqi forces have already made significant gains on the first day of the operations, retaking the villages of Ibtisha, al-Alam, Khafaja, Halabya al-Ulya, and Marzef east of Tal Afar.

They have also liberated Abra al-Najjar, Abra Hanash, al-Abara al-Kabera, and al-Abara al-Saghera to the west, Yar Allah said. It is hard to count the number of civilians in the city since, like other ISIS-controlled areas, people are banned from contacting others outside.

The Coalition estimates that approximately 10,000-50,000 civilians remain in and around Tal Afar, and the UN said more than 30,000 people had already left Tal Afar by early Saturday. “Conditions are very tough in the city,” said UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq Lisa Grande. “Food and water are running out, and people lack the basic necessities to survive.”

“We are deeply worried about the extreme risks that families are facing. Everything has to be done by the parties to the conflict to avoid civilian casualties and ensure people have the assistance they are entitled to under international humanitarian law.” Tal Afar is located 70 kilometers west of Mosul, where US-backed government forces ended extremists’ rule in July after a months-long battle.