BAGHDAD, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces battling Islamic State (IS) militants on Thursday extended their grip in the city of Tal Afar as they seized four neighborhoods from the extremist IS militants, the Iraqi military said.
The army's 9th Armored Division and the paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units freed al-Nour al-Thani neighborhood in eastern the city after heavy clashes with IS militants and initiated a new progress at the edge of the adjacent al-Uroubah neighborhood, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Yarallah from the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a statement.
The Iraqi soldiers, backed by armored vehicles broke into the eastern neighborhood of al-Jazira and recaptured part of it, along with seizing al-Saray police station and the civil defense building, Yarallah said.
In western Tal Afar, the federal police and the Hashd Shaabi units freed al-Wahda and raised the Iraqi flags over some of its buildings after they defeated IS militants and started a new push on the edge of the adjacent al-Rabie neighborhood, Yarallah said.
The commandos of the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) fought heavy clashes with the extremist militants, during the day, in the southwestern neighborhood of Mu'almeen and managed to dislodge IS militants from the neighborhood, Yarallah added.
The CTS forces initiated a new push at the edge of the adjacent al-Nidaa neighborhood, Yarallah said.
On Aug. 20, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, also the commander-in-chief of Iraqi forces, declared the start of an operation to retake control of Tal Afar and nearby areas from IS militants.
"We announce the launch of an operation to liberate Tal Afar. I say to Daesh (IS), either you surrender or die," Abadi said.
Tal Afar, some 70 km west of Mosul, is the last IS redoubt in the province of Nineveh.
The United Nation's International Organization for Migration estimates that some 10,000 to 40,000 people are still living in Tal Afar and surrounding areas.
Earlier, the army's Maj. Gen. 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.
