Iraqi forces free 9 villages from IS near Syrian border

Mosul, June 6 (IANS): Iraqi paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units on Monday recaptured nine villages from Islamic State (IS) militants near the Iraqi-Syrian border.

The Hashd Shaabi units, backed by the army’s helicopter gunships, liberated nine villages scattered in west of the newly freed town of Baaj, some 20km east of the Syrian border, Xinhua reported.

Baaj is located in the rugged sprawling area in south of the town of Sinjar, some 100km west of Mosul.

During the day, the paramilitary units killed some 37 IS militants and the gunships destroyed four suicide car bombs trying to stop the advance of the units, the statement said, adding that the forces destroyed several IS headquarters and posts outside and inside the town.

The units also seized a T-72 tank and three heavy machine guns, along with different kinds of weapons and ammunition.

The operation near the border is part of a major offensive designed to secure the border areas with neighboring Syria and cut off IS supply routes between Mosul and the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de-facto capital of the IS self-declared caliphate.

On May 29, the units made their first arrival at the Iraqi-Syrian border after they freed the town of al-Qahtaniyah, some 18 km east of the Syrian border.

The operations near the Syrian border came as Iraqi security forces, backed by the anti-IS international coalition, were simultaneously conducting a major offensive to dislodge IS militants from their major stronghold in western Mosul.

Mosul, 400 km north of Baghdad, has been under IS control since June 2014, when government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to control parts of Iraq’s northern and western regions.