IRAQI PMU REPELS MASSIVE ISIS OFFENSIVE WEST OF MOSUL

The Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) repelled a violent ISIS assault on Tal Abtah and Al-Jawf west of Mosul. The ISIS advance was aimed at lifting the siege imposed by the Iraqi Armed Forces on the ISIS-held areas of Tal Afar and Mosul.

Separately, another ISIS attack was repelled at the villages of Talal and Kom al-Habib near Tal Afar. The Iraqi Air Force and PMU artillery units neutralizeed over 30 militants and destroyed 4 armored vehicles and 2 VBIEDs.

Last night, ISIS carried out a large attack in Kirkuk. 10 suicide bombers attacked a government check point and killed a commander of the counterterrorism forces along with his son. The ISIS-linked news agency Amaq claimed that over 40 civilians and soldiers had been killed in the attack.

The terrorist group also launched a number of attacks targeting Iraqi forces in the densely-populated districts of western Mosul. Two armored vehicles belonging to the Iraqi Army were allegedly destroyed.

In a separate development, the Iraqi Air Force killed 3 top-ranking ISIS commanders as a result of a successful air strike on an ISIS command center in the Ba’aj district of Mosul. The leaders were identified as the Saudi nationals Abdullah al-Hiyafi “Abu al-Hareth finance emir, Khaled Mohammad Hazza’ al-Shamri commander of Al-Zubeir Brigade, and Iraqi Abdurrahman Mohammad Murad, the leader of military operations in the Ba’aj district.

Visibly, Iraqi Army operations have stagnated severely as a result of the terrible weather streak in addition to ISIS’ usage of human shields in Old Mosul and constant counter-attacks made by the group.

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