Arbil: Iraqi paramilitary units captured the northern province of Hatra on Thursday, cutting off several desert tracks used by Daesh to move between Iraq and Syria, the military.
The operations in Hatra are carried out by Popular Mobilisation, a coalition of mostly Iranian-trained militias of Shiite volunteers formed in 2014 after Daesh overran a third of Iraq.
The militias on Wednesday dislodged Daesh from the ancient ruins of Hatra, which suffered great destruction under the militants’ three-year rule, a military spokesman said.
Hatra, a city that flourished in the first century AD, lies 125 kilometres south of Mosul, where the militants have been fighting off a US-backed offensive since October.
The militants are now surrounded in the northwestern part of Mosul, including the Old City and its landmark Grand Al Nouri Mosque from where their leader, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, declared in mid-2014 a so-called caliphate also spanning parts of Syria.
Mosul is by far the largest city that had fallen to the militants in both countries. The density of the population is slowing the advance of Iraqi forces.
Hatra is also located west of Hawija, a region north of Baghdad still under Daesh control.
Popular Mobilisation, which operates with the approval of Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government, said on Tuesday the Hatra campaign aims at cutting off Daesh’s routes between Hawija, Mosul and eastern Syria.
Iraq’s border region with Syria is a historic hotbed of insurgency against the rule of the Shiite majority community, empowered after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussain in 2003.
