Shergat is on the western bank of the Tigris River, in the northern province of Salaheddin, around 20 kilometers northwest from Baghdad and around 80 kilometers south from Mosul.
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Iraqi forces have already re-conquered other towns north of Sherqat on the way to Mosul but the question of Shiite militia involvement in military operations there had held up the push.
The spokesman for the Joint-Operation Command, Yahya Rasool, said that special counter-terrorist troops and Sunni combatants from the Hashed al-Ashaeri (Tribal Mobilization) were decisive in the operation, supported by the US-led global coalition.
Sherqat is “in close proximity to their supply lines”, Dorrian said, referring to routes by which Iraqi forces move troops and material for operations against IS.
Earlier, on Monday, Marine General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iraq will have the full complement of the forces it needs to retake Mosul in October.
Iraqi troops, backed by local police and Sunni Muslim tribal fighters, took up positions along five axes on Tuesday and advanced through five villages but by midday were still around 13 km from the town center, said the mayor and a source in the Salahuddin Operations Command, which oversees military operations in the area.
Meanwhile, Iraqi forces backed by USA -led coalition warplanes managed to capture two Daesh-held villages in western Ramadi. The only militias involved were Sunni tribal fighters from the area, he said.
Ahmed al-Assadi, the spokesman of the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) paramilitary forces, said operation “Sherqat Dawn” aimed to “finish expelling those terrorist gangsters from usurped Iraqi land”.
The reports of the provincial security sources came hours after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the launching of the operations in the two provinces, in a televised message from NY, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly.
Abadi said in a televised message from NY, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly, that Iraqi forces would also move to retake two areas in western Anbar province. In neighboring Syria, the chaotic civil war continues to hamper the fight against IS, but in Iraq, the extremists have lost half the territory they once held, according to the U.S.
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Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has pledged to retake Mosul this year, and Iraqi commanders have said an attack on the city could take place in late October.
