TAL ABTA: Iraqi forces on Tuesday recaptured from the IS group the first three districts of their bastion Tal Afar as the Pentagon chief visited Baghdad in a show of support.
The United Nations said thousands of civilians had fled Tal Afar in the two days since the start of the broad offensive backed by the US-led coalition fighting IS.
In remarks in Baghdad after meeting Prime Minister Haider al Abadi, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said the militants were “on the run”.
“Cities have been liberated, people freed from IS,” Mattis said.
The militants had not been able “to stand up to our team in combat, and they have not retaken one inch of ground that they lost”, he said.
Iraqi troops backed by a US-led international coalition routed IS in Mosul in July after a gruelling nine-month fight for Iraq’s second city.
They launched an offensive on Sunday to recapture Tal Afar, once a key IS supply hub between Mosul — around 70 km further east — and the Syrian border to the west.
IS fighters inside Tal Afar, estimated to number around 1,000, responded with artillery fire on Tuesday as Iraqi forces massed outside the city.
Army, police and units of the Hashed al Shaabi paramilitary coalition later took “full control” of the Al Kifah, Al Nur and Al Askari districts of Tal Afar, the Hashed said.
Iraqi forces had encircled the city despite what Hashed spokesman Ahmed al Assadi described as “intense” fighting. He said the battle for the city would probably last weeks, in contrast to the months-long battle for Mosul.
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