ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – ISIS militants launched two separate counterattacks on the Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi west of Mosul and the Iraqi army in southern Mosul as the Iraqi forces have tightened the noose around the militants on all fronts in the embattled city. “The Hashd al-Shaabi forces repelled an ISIS attack around Tal Afar airport, killing 10 militants and destroying three military vehicles,” a Shiite official, told Rudaw. The source said the groups’ counterattack was to minimize Hashd advances on the militant-held town of Tal Afar as “their morale has collapsed and are now putting up weak resistance.” He added that “Tal Afar is surrounded on all directions. ISIS militants are in a terrible situation as they dig trenches and make wooden-statues to confuse Hashd al-Shaabi and coalition warplanes.” ISIS has reportedly built fake military installations such as tanks out of wood as decoy targets to fool Iraqi and coalition forces. The group also launched an attack on the advancing Iraqi troops in the village of Azba in southern Mosul. A source from the Iraqi federal police told Rudaw that the ISIS attackers were “intensely bombed in the Ghazlani military base,” near the village. The Iraqi government alongside Shiite and Kurdish forces launched an offensive to retake Mosul, still largely under the control of the Islamic State, just over two months ago. They have retaken nearly 40 neighborhoods in eastern Mosul and large areas around the city.
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