BAGHDAD, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces battling Islamic State (IS) militants on Friday freed a town near the city of Tal Afar in Iraq's northern province of Nineveh, while the troops pushed further in Tal Afar and recaptured five neighborhoods, the Iraqi military said.
The Iraqi army and paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units freed the town of Mahalabiyah, some 35 km southeast of the battlefield city of Tal Afar, after they defeated IS militants in 13 of the town's neighborhoods and suburbs, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Yarallah from the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a brief statement.
Meanwhile, the troops made significant progress during the day as the troops retook control of five more neighborhoods, forcing the extremist militants to withdraw deep inside the neighborhoods of the city center.
In one of the neighborhoods, the army's armored vehicles and Hashd Shaabi units freed al-Jazira al-Janoby neighborhood in southeastern Tal Afar, after heavy clashes with IS militants, Yarallah said in a separate statement.
The army's armored vehicles and Hashd Shaabi fighters also retook control of the nearby neighborhood of al-Khdraa in southeastern the city, Yarallah said.
Also in the day, the commandos of the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) recaptured al-Nidaa neighborhood in southern Tal Afar, and initiated a new push into the adjacent neighborhood of al-Talei'a, Yarallah added.
Hours later, the CTS freed the al-Talei'a neighborhood after defeating IS militants who withdrew to the nearby old al-Qal'a, or Tal Afar Citadel, which is a ruined Ottoman fortress, located in the center of the city.
In addition, the federal police forces and the Hashd Shaabi fighters freed al-Saad neighborhood in northwestern Tal Afar and the nearby power station and raised the Iraqi flags on some buildings, according to Yarallah.
Tal Afar area is about 3,206 square km, which consists of the city of Tal Afar itself and three towns: Zummar, which is under control of the Kurdish security forces, Mahalabiyah, which the troops freed from IS militants during the day, and Ayadhiyah, some 11 km northwest of Tal Afar, which is still under IS control.
The city of Tal Afar consists of 30 neighborhoods, while the whole Tal Afar area consists of 47 villages scattered around the city of Tal Afar and its three towns.
The majority population of Tal Afar area are Sunni and Shiite Turkomans, in addition to the minority of Kurds and other minorities.
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.
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.
