Monitoring Desk
BAGHDAD: Iraqi security forces continued their advance after recapturing 16 villages against the Islamic state in the second phase to tighten the noose around the stronghold of the terrorist group in the city of Hawijah on Sunday.
The Iraqi Army officials told media that Iraqi army, commandos of the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) forces and the paramilitary Hashd Shaabi brigades in the rocky area in the south of the city and freed 16 villages from the IS group.
Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Yarallah, Commander of Hawijah Operations briefed media that the Iraqi army also took control of the southern part of Himreen mountain range. and the brigade of Zeghaiton.
A source from Salahudin Operations Command told Xinhua that the federal police and the interior ministry elite forces, known as Rapid Response, and Hashd Shaabi brigades advanced in two directions; one to new positions located some 6 km in west of Hawijah, and the other toward the strategic area of al-Fat’ha at the edge of the Tigris River.
