Iraqi PM announces Tal Afar, Nineveh ‘fully liberated’ from IS

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Thursday announced the town of Tal Afar was “fully liberated” from the Islamic State (IS) after about two weeks of fighting.

In an official statement, the Iraqi PM declared the complete liberation of the town as well as the entire Nineveh Province.

“The province of Nineveh is fully under control of our heroic forces,” the statement read.

“I state that Tal Afar is joining the liberated city of Mosul and returned to its homeland,” the Iraqi PM continued. “In recent days, [IS] terrorists were destroyed there.”

The announcement follows the Iraqi forces’ advance in the Ayadhiya district, about 10 kilometers (six miles) northwest of Tal Afar, where extremists fled last week.

Abadi said Iraqi forces had “eliminated and smashed [IS] terrorists” who were hiding in the district.

Federal Police Chief Major-General Raed Jawdat on Wednesday predicted the victory of Iraqi troops in Tal Afar despite heavy resistance from the extremists toward the end of the offensive.

Jawdat also said dozens of families had been evacuated in the town and were transferred to displaced person’s camps where they were provided humanitarian aid.

After ruling a third of the country three years ago, IS only controls the northern town of Hawija as well as towns in western Iraq near the Syrian border with this latest defeat.

Abadi warned the militant group that Iraqi forces would recapture all the remaining territory under IS-control.

“Wherever you are we will come to liberate, and you have to choose only death or surrender,” he concluded.

The US-led coalition is supporting the progress of Iraqi soldiers with air strikes as they advance on the ground to defeat IS.