MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The operation will be led by the army’s 15th division, al-Masdar News media outlet reported, citing Maj. Gen. Najm Jubouri, commander of the Nineveh Operations.
The Iraqi Shia Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) have been reportedly operating near Tal Afar since October 2016, liberating strategic sites and villages but they do not try to retake the town as it is mainly populated by Sunni Turkmens.
Tal Afar, among other northern and western Iraqi cities and towns including Mosul, second biggest Iraqi city, were seized in 2014 during a Daesh offensive.
The operation to liberate Mosul from Daesh terrorists, outlawed in many countries, including Russia, began on October 17, 2016. Iraqi troops have managed to advance in the eastern part of the city, but the western part — on the right bank of the Tigris River — remains under militant control.
