Iraqi army says it recaptured key town south of Mosul
Iraqi forces backed by air strikes from the US-led coalition gained complete control of the northern district of Shirqat on September 22, bringing the military a step closer to a main push on Mosul later this year.
 |
Brigadier-General Yahya Rasool, spokesman for the military's joint operations command, said in a statement broadcast on state television that the district had been liberated from "the desecration of terrorism".
Shirqat, on the Tigris river 100 km (60 miles) south of Mosul, has been surrounded for months by Iraqi troops and Iranian-backed Shi'ite Muslim militias allied to the government.
But the army, backed by local police and Sunni Muslim tribal fighters, conducted the fighting this week and the militias did not appear to take part.
Iraqi forces advanced swiftly through the area after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the operation on September 19 morning.
The area's proximity to Iraqi supply lines reaching Qayyara air base further north, which will be used as a logistics hub for the push on Mosul, lends it strategic importance.
A rocket attack on September 19 that came within hundreds of meters of US forces at the base is being tested for chemical agents.
