Daesh attacks kill 4 militiamen in Iraq’s Tal Afar

By Ali Jawad and Mohamed Waleed

BAGHDAD

Four Shia militiamen and 13 militants were killed in Daesh attacks in Iraq’s predominantly Turkmen city of Tal Afar late Sunday, according to a local police officer.

Daesh militants attacked positions of the Hashd al-Shaabi militia in western Tal Afar in an attempt to break an army siege imposed around the city, police captain Saad Hadi told Anadolu Agency on Monday.

He said 13 militants and four members of the Hashd al-Shaabi, an umbrella of pro-government militias, were killed in ensuing clashes with the attackers.

According to Hadi, two Russian-made tanks were used by Daesh militants during Sunday’s assault.

Army officer Jabbar Hassan, for his part, said Iraqi warplanes took part in aborting the Daesh attacks in western Tal Afar.

“The battle lasted for five hours during which Daesh has sustained major losses,” he said.

Daesh has overrun vast swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq in 2014.

In late October, the Iraqi army, backed by U.S.-led coalition warplanes, launched a major offensive to recapture Mosul, once Iraq’s second largest city in terms of population, from the terrorist group.

Tal Afar is a Turkmen-majority city in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the provincial capital.