Iraqi Popular Forces Repulse Massive Attacks by Daesh in Tal Afar

TEHRAN (defapress) – Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), also known as Hashd al-Shaabi, repelled major attacks by Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) terrorist group in Tal Afar, a town located approximately 50km west of Mosul, local media said.

News ID: 65454

Date: 04 August 2017 - 14:57

The PMU forces on Thursday repulsed the Daesh attacks on the villages of Ein Talawi and Maqtal al-Khanzeer southwest of Tal Afar, the Arabic-language al-Forat news agency reported.

Since the Iraqi volunteer forces blocked all supply routes to the city of Tal Afar, Daesh terrorists have occasionally launched attacks to open routes to Syria.

In another operation on Thursday, the Hashd al-Shaabi forces repelled an offensive by Daesh terrorists in an area near Iraq-Syria border, inflicting heavy casualties on the foreign-backed militants.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over Daesh in Mosul on July 10 after a nine-month battle, marking the biggest defeat for the terror group since its sweep through northern Iraq three years ago.

Daesh militants made swift advances in much of northern and western Iraq over the summer of 2014, after capturing large swaths of northern Syria.

However, a combination of concentrated attacks by the Iraqi military and the volunteer forces, who rushed to take arms after top Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa calling for the fight against the militants, blunted the edge of Daesh offensive and later made the terror group withdraw from much of the territories it had occupied.