Daesh-appointed city governor killed in Iraqi airstrike

By Sarhad Shaker

NINEVEH, Iraq

The Daesh-appointed “governor” (wali) of Tal Afar was killed in an airstrike by Iraqi warplanes that also killed his son, according to an Iraqi military source.

“Ammar Mustafa Yusuf, also known as Abu Ibrahim, a Daesh leader in Tal Afar who had been appointed by the terrorist group as the city’s governor, was killed in an airstrike conducted by the Iraqi Air Force,” Musa Hasan Julaq, the Turkmen leader of Iraq’s Hashd al-Shaabi military force, told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.

Yusuf’s eldest son, who had led his father’s security detail, was also killed in the strike, Julaq said.

The airstrike occurred in the village of Ain Talawi -- located some 15 kilometers west of Tal Afar -- while Yusuf and his son were attempting to flee towards the city, according to Julaq.

Earlier Wednesday, the Hashd al-Shaabi (a component of the Iraqi Armed Forces) said it had launched the sixth phase of an ongoing campaign to “liberate” western districts of the northern city of Mosul.

In a statement, the Hashd al-Shaabi said it had launched a major attack from four directions on Turkmen-majority Tal Afar (a Daesh stronghold), capturing a number of outlying villages.

On Sunday, the Iraqi army began a wide-ranging operation aimed at purging remaining Daesh terrorists from Mosul’s western districts.

The offensive comes as part of a wider operation launched last October to retake the entire city, which Daesh overran in mid-2014.