TAL AFAR: Iraqi Turkmen fighter Abbas Yussef is all smiles, clutching his Kalashnikov near the front lines in Tel Afar after his unit retook his home neighborhood from Daesh militants.
“I can’t describe my joy when I saw my house again,” Yussef said. “I can’t describe how it felt to take it back, a gun in my hand.”
Three years ago, Daesh seized nearly one-third of Iraq, including Tal Afar, in a sweeping offensive that forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. Yussef was among them, but quickly, along with thousands of others, he responded to a call by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the highest Shiite authority in Iraq, to take up arms against the militants.
Soon afterward he enrolled in the paramilitary Hashed Al-Shaabi, an umbrella organization, which is dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias but which also includes Shiite Turkmen. The Hashed took part in the offensive to retake Iraq’s second city Mosul, which was liberated in July after a grueling nine-month onslaught, alongside US-backed Iraqi military, police and counter-terrorism forces.
Now the paramilitary group has been battling to recapture Tal Afar, where Daesh has been driven out of all 29 districts in the northern city a mere week into an assault by Iraqi forces.
With Iraqi forces poised to declare victory over Daesh, Hashed fighters like Yussef recall how three years ago they were driven from their homes by advancing militants.
“I had to leave with my family for Diwaniya” province south of Baghdad, “leaving behind the house I had spent a lifetime building,” Yussef tells AFP, wiping dust and sweat from his face.
The former Iraq army officer now in his 40s was battling Daesh holdouts in the western Tal Afar neighborhood of Al-Kifah when he saw his house — and that brought a smile to his face.
Akram Kambris was also driven out by Daesh from Al-Kifah. Sitting on a rock, the Hashed fighter points to an out-patient clinic. “I was posted there when I was in the local police,” he said before pointing to another rose-colored red-brick building. “That’s my sister’s house.”
Kambris recalls that three years ago he and his “entire family” fled south when Daesh militants swept into Tal Afar.
Now, he says, all of Tal Afar’s residents are involved in the offensive to rout Daesh from the city. “The younger ones fight and the older ones organize (food) convoys” for the militiamen.
Most of the city’s 200,000-strong population fled Tal Afar after IS seized it. According to Akram, “just a few families linked to Daesh” have stayed on in Tal Afar.
Yussef said that “most of the Daesh chiefs in Tal Afar” hail from prominent families. According to him, “there are Kurds among Daesh and their leader is Abu Alaa Al-Talafari.”
“Actually most of the Daesh emirs are originally from Tal Afar. Foreign and Turkish Daesh members joined later,” said Yussef.
![]()
Tal Afar residents who fled are back to battle Daesh
Tal Afar residents who fled are back to battle Daesh
UN-sanctioned migrant smuggler killed in western Libya
- Libyan authorities report that a notorious militia leader, Ahmed Oumar Al-Fitouri Al-Dabbashi, was killed in a raid by security forces on Friday
- In 2018, the UN and US sanctioned him for controlling migrant departure areas and exposing migrants to fatal conditions
CAIRO: A notorious militia leader in Libya, sanctioned by the UN for migrant trafficking across the Mediterranean Sea, was killed on Friday in a raid by security forces in the west of the country, according to Libyan authorities.
Ahmed Oumar Al-Fitouri Al-Dabbashi, nicknamed Ammu, was killed in the western city of Sabratha when security forces raided his hideout. The raid came in response to an attack on a security outpost by Al-Dabbashi’s militia, which left six members of the security forces severely wounded, according to a statement issued by the Security Threat Enforcement Agency, a security entity affiliated with Libya’s western government.
Al-Dabbashi, who was also sanctioned by the US Treasury for trafficking, was the leader of a powerful militia, the “Brigade of the Martyr Anas Al-Dabbashi,” in Sabratha, the biggest launching point in Libya for Europe-bound African migrants.
Al-Dabbashi’s brother Saleh Al-Dabbashi, another alleged trafficker, was arrested in the same raid, added the statement.
In June 2018, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Al-Dabbashi, along with another five Libyan traffickers. At the time, the UN report said that there was enough evidence that Al-Dabbashi’s militia controlled departure areas for migrants, camps, safe houses and boats.
Al-Dabbashi himself exposed migrants, including children, to “fatal circumstances” on land and at sea, and of threatening peace and stability in Libya and neighboring countries, according to the same report.
Al-Dabbashi was also sanctioned by the US Treasury for the same reason.
Libya has been a main transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. The country was plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
The country has been fragmented for years between rival administrations based in the east and the west of Libya, each backed by various armed militias and foreign governments.
Ahmed Oumar Al-Fitouri Al-Dabbashi, nicknamed Ammu, was killed in the western city of Sabratha when security forces raided his hideout. The raid came in response to an attack on a security outpost by Al-Dabbashi’s militia, which left six members of the security forces severely wounded, according to a statement issued by the Security Threat Enforcement Agency, a security entity affiliated with Libya’s western government.
Al-Dabbashi, who was also sanctioned by the US Treasury for trafficking, was the leader of a powerful militia, the “Brigade of the Martyr Anas Al-Dabbashi,” in Sabratha, the biggest launching point in Libya for Europe-bound African migrants.
Al-Dabbashi’s brother Saleh Al-Dabbashi, another alleged trafficker, was arrested in the same raid, added the statement.
In June 2018, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Al-Dabbashi, along with another five Libyan traffickers. At the time, the UN report said that there was enough evidence that Al-Dabbashi’s militia controlled departure areas for migrants, camps, safe houses and boats.
Al-Dabbashi himself exposed migrants, including children, to “fatal circumstances” on land and at sea, and of threatening peace and stability in Libya and neighboring countries, according to the same report.
Al-Dabbashi was also sanctioned by the US Treasury for the same reason.
Libya has been a main transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. The country was plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
The country has been fragmented for years between rival administrations based in the east and the west of Libya, each backed by various armed militias and foreign governments.
Latest updates
© 2025 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.