Shi’te militias follow Iraq Army towards Mosul

According to the Associated Press, the Iranian backed Shi’te militias have joined the battle for Mosul.

The umbrella group for the militias, known as the Popular Mobilization Units, said they will not enter Mosul itself and will instead focus on retaking Tal Afar, a town to the west that had a Shiite majority before it fell to IS in 2014.

Ahmed al-Assadi, a spokesman for the group, told reporters in Baghdad the militias had retaken 10 villages since the start of the predawn operation. But there likely still was some fighting underway, and he said forces were removing explosive booby-traps left by IS to slow their advance.

Jaafar al-Husseini, a spokesman for the Hezbollah Brigades, said his group and the other militias had advanced 4 miles toward Tal Afar and used anti-tank missiles to destroy three suicide car bombs that were heading toward them.

He said the U.S.-led coalition, which is providing airstrikes and ground support to the Iraqi military and Kurdish forces known as the peshmerga, is not playing any role in the Shiite militias’ advance. He said Iranian advisers and Iraqi aircraft were helping them.

The militias were formed in 2003 to oppose the perceived US invasion and they were re-established in response to the ISIS invasion of Iraq in 2014.

While the militias were involved in the north of Iraq, an ISIS suicide bomber attacked a Shi’ite aid station in Baghdad, killing seven and wounding more than twenty Shi’ite pilgrims.

Category: Terror War