MOSUL, Iraq, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units on Sunday recaptured the town of al-Baaj from Islamic State (IS) militants, as part of an operation to drive out the extremist militants from areas near Iraqi-Syrian border in west of Mosul, the Iraqi military said.
The Hashd Shaabi units, backed by the army's helicopter gunships, liberated al-Baaj, some 20 km east of the Syrian border, and raised the Iraqi flag over some of its buildings, Abdul-Amir Yarallah from the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a brief statement.
In the early morning, the paramilitary units broke into the town from three directions and fought sporadic clashes against IS militants, leaving heavy casualties among them and took full control of the town, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Hashd Shaabi units, said in another statement.
The liberation of the town, which located in the rugged sprawling area in south of the town of Sinjar, some 100 km west of Mosul, 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.
