BAGHDAD, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi forces battling Islamic State (IS) militants on Monday seized more villages and strategic areas as they continue push to besiege the IS redoubt in the town of Tal Afar and surrounding areas, the Iraqi military said.
The security forces and the paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units advanced from several directions in the rural areas around the IS-held town of Tal Afar, some 70 km west of the newly-freed Mosul, recapturing seven villages and the strategic al-Kasak main road in east of Tal Afar, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Yarallah from the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a statement.
On Sunday, the troops, backed by Iraqi and international aircraft, liberated a total of 12 villages around Tal Afar, in addition to capturing the southern part of Zambar mountain range in east of the town, according to Yarallah.
The advance is part of an operation declared early on Sunday by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi aimed at retaking control of the northern town Tal Afar and nearby areas from IS militants.
"We announce the launch of an operation to liberate Tal Afar. I say to Daesh (IS militants) -- either you surrender or die," Abadi said in a televised speech.
The targeted area of Tal Afar is about 3,206 square km, which consists of the town of Tal Afar itself and two districts of Ayadhiyah and Mahalabiyah, in addition to about 47 villages scattered in the area, according to information obtained from the official Iraqiya television.
Tal Afar is the last IS redoubt in the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh. Up to 350,000 to 400,000 people used to live in the town and surrounding areas, including 250,000 people in Tal Afar itself. But most of them left their homes either due to the sectarian strife during the years after 2003, or after the town fell to the IS in 2014.
The majority population of Tal Afar area are Sunni and Shiite Turkomans, in addition to the minority of Kurds and other minorities.
The United Nation's International Organization for Migration estimates that some 10,000 to 40,000 people are still living in the town of Tal Afar and surrounding areas.
Earlier, the army's Major General Najim al-Jubouri, commander of Nineveh's Operations Command, told reporters that he estimated there were between 1,500 and 2,000 IS militants left in Tal Afar.
