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On Saturday, the Iraqi Army and the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) captured al-Rabia’a, al-Muthnah and al-Qadisiah districts in the northern part of Tal Afar town west of Mosul.
Iraqi forces also captured the historical Tal Afar citadel in the center of the town, and Hassan Kwai district in the eastern part of the town.
The army and the PMU also captured the following villages and farms:
- Al-Sadah village north of Tal Afar area;
- Abu Maria village northeast of Tal Afar area;
- Al-Akel, al-Afar and al-Fraeh farms northeast of Tal Afar area;
- Zambar and Bakhur villages east of Tal Afar area;
- Zambar mount east of Tal Afar area.
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Iraqi forces killed and injured dozens of ISIS fighters, and captured the main ISIS communication center in the Tal Afar area as well as the ISIS prison.
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Click to see the full-size map
Meanwhile, Iraqi Air Force warplanes destroyed a large ammo depot of ISIS in a farm in al-Qa’am area on the Syrian-Iraqi border. According to local sources over 25 ISIS fighters were killed in the airstrike.
95% of the Tal Afar area is now under the control of the Iraqi forces. It’s expected that Tal Afar operation will be over soon.
More photos of the liberated area:
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Click to see the full-size map
Oh and we were told that there are 2000 ISIS fighters in Tal Afar area… maybe 500 is more accurate.
They needed 40,000 soldiers for 500 Daesh members , that’s bad.
Some US taxpayers are paying the bill for all these soldiers to defeat a skeleton enemy :D
The US elites and Israeli Zionists should be footing this P.R. tool bill in my book , they want to say see “we swatted a flea with a 50 pound sledgehammer”. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a329c8dedc33b3c599983e8c659807a6b265e58f76fb58fb538926810df0b44e.jpg
Yeah, perhaps the US coalition lied about the 2000 ISIS remaining. But an 80:1 combat ratio is quite good! :D
The Problem is they could have used that force to combat Daesh more effectively along the border instead of the loss of life suffered by the PMU as it turned out and a strengthening and resting of Daesh forces as was intended by the US.
It makes good military sense though to gather overwhelming crushing force to crush an enemy. If there had been 2000 ISIS troops in this pocket and they were in the mood to put up a hell of a fight it could have been a hell of a fight still. Better to have gathered this strong a force only to discover the enemy was a lot weaker then to go in with a smaller force and face a stronger then expected more determined foe.
Their numbers were intentionally overestimated to make this very expensive P.R. campaign by the US since the Taxpayer was footing the bill. The better use would have been keeping pressure on Daesh instead of granting them a reprieve along the border where they are the strongest and can still continue terrorist attacks against Baghdad and other regions.
A tweeter with a contact in the city claimed only 120 IS in Tel Afar. Most were defending Mosul or fled earlier.
The mercenaries in these groups are always the first to flee since they have no allegiance to anyone but the ability to earn coin.