Iraqi forces battling to drive out the Daesh group from its Tal Afar bastion said Saturday they had recaptured the city center and raised the country’s flag atop its Ottoman-era citadel.
Iraqi forces battling to drive out the Daesh group from its Tal Afar bastion said Saturday they had recaptured the city center and raised the country’s flag atop its Ottoman-era citadel.
“Units of the Counter-Terrorism Service liberated the Citadel and Basatin districts and raised the Iraqi flag on top of the citadel,” operation commander General Abdulamir Yarallah said in a statement.
The CTS and federal police units had converged on the city center from the south and west, said General Yarallah.
Clashes were ongoing on the northern outskirts and Iraqi forces were dealing with the final pockets of resistance inside the city, he added.
Saturday’s advance puts Iraqi forces on the verge of recapturing Tal Afar only six days after they launched an offensive to take back one of the last Daesh strongholds in the country.
