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Iran-backed Shi'ite militias to join assault near Mosul on new front

28 October 2016 18:18 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Iraqi Shi'ite militias said on Friday they would soon join the fight against Islamic State on a new front west of Mosul, a move which could block any retreat by the jihadists into Syria but might alarm Turkey and the United States, APA reports quoting Reuters.

The Shi'ite militias, with thousands of battle-hardened fighters trained by Iran, would bring important extra firepower to what is expected to be the biggest battle in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

But their arrival on the battlefield in one of the most diverse parts of Iraq also creates worry for Western countries backing the Iraqi government offensive, who fear that the Shi'ite fighters could alienate residents in mainly Sunni areas.

A spokesman for the paramilitary groups said the advance toward the Islamic State-held town of Tal Afar, about 55 km (35 miles) west of Mosul, would start within "a few days or hours".

If successful, the offensive would leave Islamic State fighters - and the 1.5 million civilians still living in Mosul - encircled by an advancing coalition of forces which seeks to crush the hardline Sunni militants in their Iraq stronghold.

As many as 50,000 Iraqi soldiers, police and Kurdish peshmerga fighters, backed by U.S.-led air strikes and support on the ground, have advanced on Mosul for nearly two weeks from the south, north and east.

They have already recaptured scores of villages on the flat plains east of Mosul and along the Tigris river to the south of the city, Islamic State's last big bastion in Iraq.

Until now, it has not been clear whether the Shi'ite paramilitaries would join the fight, or whether the western approaches of the city would be left open so that civilians and militants could escape.