SHARQAT, Iraq: Iraqi forces achieved the first goal of a new offensive against the Daesh on just its second day on Friday, penetrating the northern town of Sharqat, AFP correspondents said.
Some residents celebrated in the streets as government troops and paramilitaries entered the town centre and tore down the black flags of the militants who had ruled it with an iron fist for more than three years.
AFP correspondents saw little major damage in the town, although there had been casualties in the fighting as they saw the bodies of two militants in the back of a pickup.
Sharqat was the first goal of a major offensive launched on Thursday to recapture an Daesh-held enclave centred on the insurgent bastion of Hawija, one of just two pockets still controlled by the militants in Iraq.
Sector operations chief General Abdul Amir Yarallah said some 20 villages around Sharqat had also been recaptured from Daesh.
The next goal is Hawija itself, some 30 kilometres to the southeast.
