BAGHDAD: Iraqi forces said they faced tough resistance on Monday from Daesh terrorists driven out of the city of Tal Afar to a small town where they had “nothing to lose” by fighting to the end.
An advance by the Iraqi army and Shiite paramilitary groups into Al-’Ayadiya was being slowed by snipers, booby-traps and roadside bombs, military officials said.
“The offensive started from two fronts in a bid to distract Daesh fighters,” army Lt. Col. Salah Kareem said.
“A total of four suicide bombers driving vehicles rigged with explosives attacked our troops under sniper cover. We had to slow down to avoid high casualty rates among our soldiers.”
Iraqi forces have in recent days recaptured almost all of the northwestern city of Tal Afar, long a stronghold of Islamic State. They have been waiting to take Al-’Ayadiya, 11 km northwest of the city, before declaring complete victory.
“Our intelligence shows that the most diehard Daesh fighters fled Tal Afar to Al-’Ayadiya,” Kareem said.
He said continuous air strikes and round-the-clock drone surveillance had prevented them fleeing to neighboring Syria.
“They have nothing to lose ... they will fight to the last breath,” Kareem said.
Daesh mortar rounds and sniper fire struck close to the advancing forces. The army hit back with tanks, heavy machine guns and mortars.
Up to 2,000 battle-hardened militants were believed to be defending Tal Afar against around 50,000 government troops last week. It was unclear how many were left in Al-’Ayadiya.
Many motorcycles carrying the Islamic State insignia had been abandoned at the side of the road outside Al-’Ayadiya.
Caliphate in ruins
If the fight for the town is proving surprisingly tough, the bigger battle for Tal Afar was easier than expected for Iraqi forces.
The city’s dramatic and rapid collapse after just eight days of fighting lent support to Iraqi military reports that the militants lack sturdy command and control structures west of Mosul.
Civilians who fled Tal Afar in recent weeks told Reuters of harrowing conditions in the city, where people had been surviving on bread and dirty water for months. Some militants had looked “exhausted” and “depleted,” residents said.
Tens of thousands of people are believed to have fled in the weeks before the battle started. A Reuters team saw no sign of civilians in the neighborhoods it toured on Saturday and Sunday.
Tal Afar became the next target of the US-backed war on the terrorist group following the recapture in July of Mosul, where it had declared its “caliphate” over parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
Mosul’s collapse effectively marked the end of the caliphate, but the group remains in control of territory on both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi border.
Iraqi forces face tough resistance in final Tal Afar battle
Iraqi forces face tough resistance in final Tal Afar battle
US lawmakers press Israel to probe strike on reporters in Lebanon
- “The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said
- Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured
WASHINGTON: Several Democratic lawmakers called Thursday for the Israeli and US governments to fully investigate a deadly 2023 attack by the Israeli military on journalists in southern Lebanon.
The October 13, 2023 airstrike killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and wounded six other reporters, including two from AFP — video journalist Dylan Collins and photographer Christina Assi, who lost her leg.
“We expect the Israeli government to conduct an investigation that meets the international standards and to hold accountable those people who did this,” Senator Peter Welch told a news conference, with Collins by his side.
The lawmaker from Collins’s home state of Vermont said he had been pushing for answers for two years, first from the administration of Democratic president Joe Biden and now from the Republican White House of Donald Trump.
The Israeli government has “stonewalled at every single turn,” Welch added.
“With the Israeli government, we have been extremely patient, and we have done everything we reasonably can to obtain answers and accountability,” he said.
“The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said, referring to the Israeli military, adding that it has told his office its investigation into the incident is closed.
Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured.
“But I’d also like them to put pressure on their greatest ally in the Middle East, the Israeli government, to bring the perpetrators to account,” he said, echoing the lawmakers who called the attack a “war crime.”
“We’re not letting it go,” Vermont congresswoman Becca Balint said. “It doesn’t matter how long they stonewall us.”
AFP conducted an independent investigation which concluded that two Israeli 120mm tank shells were fired from the Jordeikh area in Israel.
The findings were corroborated by other international probes, including investigations conducted by Reuters, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders.
Unlike Welch’s assertion Thursday that the Israeli probe was over, the IDF told AFP in October that “findings regarding the event have not yet been concluded.”
