PMFs confiscate biggest IS telecommunications center in Tal Afar
Members of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces). File photo.
In a statement on Saturday, the media service of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) said “the fourth brigade seized IS’s biggest telecommunications center in northeast of Tal Afar.”
The group, according to the statement, burnt the center completely to hide information about it.
Another statement on Saturday said the PMFs combed al-Saad district in northwest of the town and found a huge IS prison, that is 800 meters away from the center of the town, with 18 bodies inside.
Joint troops of army, Federal Police, Counter-Terrorism Forces and PMFs liberated many districts including al-Qadisiya, al-Rabei and al-Salam, al-Bawari region as well as many villages and raised the Iraqi flag there.
Operations continue on the seventh day after Iraqi PM Haidar al-Abadi announced in a televised speech last week the beginning of offensive to recapture Tal Afar, which has been held by the militants since 2014, when the extremist group first emerged to proclaim its self-styled ‘caliphate’. This came after 40 days of declaring victory in Mosul, the group’s former capital, where operations lasted between October to July.
Until end of June, PMFs managed to isolate Tal Afar from the Syrian borders and from the rest of Nineveh.