Iraq launches anti-Daesh operation in Hawija of Kirkuk

By Ali Mukarrem Garip

KIRKUK (AA) - Iraqi army has launched a wide-range operation to retake Daesh-held villages in Hawija town of Kirkuk city, an army officer said late Saturday.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Hawija Commander of the Sunni Hashd al-Ashairi forces, Wasfi Al-Asi said: "Most of the Daesh militants in the region surrendered to the security forces." He added that several Daesh terrorists surrendered to Peshmerga forces on Kirkuk border.

Hawija was one of the militants' two remaining strongholds in the country.

On Thursday, Iraqi forces announced the recapture of Hawija from Daesh, one of the group's last enclaves in the country.

The commander said the terrorist group withdrew to southern part of the town.

Daesh’s rapidly diminishing presence in Iraq is now largely confined to the towns of Rawa and Al-Qaim in the western Anbar province near the Syrian border.

After overrunning vast territories in both Iraq and Syria in mid-2014, Daesh has recently suffered a string of defeats at the hands of the Iraqi military and a U.S.-led coalition.

In August, the group lost Tal Afar in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province. And one month earlier, the city of Mosul -- once the capital of Daesh’s self-proclaimed “caliphate” -- fell to the army after a nine-month siege.