Senior Commander:

PMF Ready to Attack Tal Afar

Rasa - A senior commander of Hashd al-Shaabi (Iraqi Mobilization Forces) underlined his forces' full preparedness to launch offensive against the ISIL bases in Tal Afar.

News ID: 429131

Date: 22 April 2017 - 23:42

RNA - "Tal Afar is the ISIL's last base in Mosul. We have surrounded the city since several months ago," Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes said on Saturday.

Stressing the importance of Tal Afar and its liberation, he said, "The Iraqi volunteer forces are fully ready to attack Tal Afar but the decision to start the attack is upon the General Command of the Armed Forces."

Mohandes said that 5,000sq/km of Iraq's territories have been freed from the ISIL so far.

In relevant remarks earlier this month, Spokesman of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces Ahmed al-Asadi underlined that the PMF will certainly participate in the operations to take back the strategic region of Tal Afar from the ISIL terrorists.

"The PMF's partnership in the liberation of Tal Afar is for sure and we will witness the start of these operations in the next few days," al-Asadi told in an interview.

He said that the PMF is powerfully fighting alongside the Iraqi army against terrorists in Nineveh province, and added that the popular forces are now deployed in regions between Tal Abateh in the South to Sanjar in the North and are assisting other forces in the operations to liberate the remaining regions in the Northwestern and Western parts of Mosul.

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