Iraqi forces recapture several districts of Tal Afar

TAL AFAR: Iraqi forces on Wednesday recaptured several districts and advanced toward the center of Tal Afar.
Armored personnel carriers full of soldiers and fighters of the Hashed Al-Shaabi paramilitary coalition moved into Al-Nur district of southeast Tal Afar early in the morning.
An AFP photographer said spotters on the ground called in airstrikes to cover the advance. “Our morale is very high. We are confronting the men of IS (another name for Daesh), breaking their lines and destroying their arsenals,” said Lt. Col. Monzer Abed.
The pro-government forces encountered trucks parked across roads with earthen embankments aimed at stopping them, as well as sniper fire from rooftops and mortar shelling. Six weeks after routing the Daesh terrorists from Iraq’s second city Mosul, Iraqi forces launched an assault Sunday on Tal Afar, where an estimated 1,000 militants are holed up.
They first retook three districts of the city on Tuesday, but as with the grueling nine-month campaign to recapture Mosul, their convoys face an onslaught of suicide and car bomb attacks.
On Wednesday, they “entered the neighborhood of Al-Kifah North... and headed toward the center of the city,” said Ahmed Al-Assadi, spokesman for the Hashed Al-Shaabi.
The Hashed also announced the capture of the districts of Al-Tanak and Al-Sinaai in eastern Tal Afar.
As government forces advanced, troops said they discovered a network of underground tunnels used by the militants to launch attacks behind lines of already conquered territory, or to escape.
In a bid to counter these surprise attacks, the Iraqis dropped leaflets overnight calling on civilians to help by marking houses where the militants are located.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said “thousands of civilians” had fled Tal Afar since the offensive began. But around 30,000 civilians are trapped in the fighting, according to the UN.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) fears they could be “used as human shields” and that “attempts to flee could result in executions and shootings,” said the spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
The UN and aid agencies are working to establish shelters for the displaced.