Iraqi forces oust Daesh from key town on way to Hawija

The town of Sharqat was the first goal of a major offensive launched a day ago to recapture Daesh-bastion Hawija, still 30km away, and one of just two enclaves Daesh still holds in Iraq.

A member of the Iraqi forces flashes the victory gesture from a vehicle turret in the northern Iraqi town of Sharqat on September 22, 2017.
AFP

A member of the Iraqi forces flashes the victory gesture from a vehicle turret in the northern Iraqi town of Sharqat on September 22, 2017.

Iraqi forces achieved the first goal of a new offensive against Daesh on just its second day, penetrating the northern town of Sharqat, reports said on Friday. 

Some residents celebrated in the streets as government troops and paramilitaries entered the town centre and tore down the black flags of Daesh who had ruled it with an iron fist for more than three years.

Sharqat was the first goal of a major offensive launched on Thursday to recapture a Daesh-held enclave centred on the insurgent bastion of Hawija, one of just two pockets still controlled by Daesh in Iraq.

Sector operations chief General Abdel Amir Yarallah said some that 20 villages around Sharqat had also been recaptured from Daesh.

The next goal is Hawija itself, some 30 km to the southeast.

After the defeat of Daesh in second city Mosul in July and the recapture of adjacent areas, Hawija and neighbouring towns form the last enclave still held by Daesh in Iraq apart from a section of the Euphrates Valley downstream from the border with Syria.

The mainly Sunni Arab enclave, also called "Kandahar of Iraq" which was bypassed by government forces in their advance north to Mosul last year, has been a bastion of insurgency ever since the first year of the US-led occupation in 2003.

Iraqi soldiers, police and paramilitaries launched an offensive against Daesh's other remaining enclave earlier this week, pushing up the Euphrates Valley towards the Daesh-held towns of Anna, Rawa and al Qaim.

AFP

Members of the Shia-majority Hashed al Shaabi paramilitaries flash the victory sign while riding in the back of trucks advancing towards the northern Iraqi town of Sharqat on September 22, 2017.

Shia paramilitary joins the battle

Meanwhile, the spokesman for Iraq’s mostly Shia paramilitary troops known as Popular Mobilisation Forces says they have joined the battle against Daesh in Kirkuk.

Ahmed al Asadi said the Shia militias were pushing west of Hawija on Friday.

Plans to retake the town of Hawija there have been complicated by political wrangling among Iraq’s disparate security forces. 

The town and the province are disputed between Baghdad and the northern Kurdish semi-autonomous region, where a referendum on independence is scheduled to take place on Monday.

Iraqi Kurdish leaders are pressing ahead with the referendum, which Baghdad dismisses as illegal.

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