Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi says it encircles Tal Afar from two sides

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region--The mainly Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitary claimed on Friday it has encircled the city of Tal Afar from south and west, one day after its forces recaptured the city’s airport from the ISIS militants  in a major push to cut the group’s supply lines from its de facto capital of Raqqa in Syria to the the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Two villages have been liberated to the east of Tal Afar, the state-backed paramilitary said in a statement on Friday, adding that they have now cut the road between the city and its airport. 

It also said they continued to clear the Tal Afar airport on Friday from explosives, landmines and pockets of ISIS militants.

“Hashd al-Shaabi control over the airport will pave the way to liberate the Tal Afar district and will cut the last ISIS supply lines between Tal Afar and Mosul,” the paramilitary said on Tuesday, a day after it launched a fresh offensive west of Mosul.

 

Since after the start of the Iraqi and Kurdish offensive to evict ISIS from Mosul on Oct. 17, the Hashd forces have been fighting on the city’s western front, tasked with closing the route between Mosul and the militants’ so-called capital, the Syrian city of Raqqa.

 

 

Tal Afar, 60 kilometers west of Mosul, has been under ISIS control since mid-2014.