Baghdad, June 17 (IANS): Iraqi security forces backed by Shiite militia are still fighting Sunni militants to take control of the city of Tal Afar in the northern Nineveh province, a security source said Tuesday.
The troops have taken control of the airport outside Tal Afar, some 70 km west of Nineveh's provincial capital Mosul, and fierce clashes were underway in several Shiite neighbourhoods in western part of the city, military sources said.
Large parts of the city are still under the control of the Sunni militant groups, including the militants linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an Al Qaeda offshoot, the security ource told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, the security forces received substantial troops reinforcement at the airport, including Shiite militiamen affiliated to the Asa'b Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, as many units collapsed in early battles with insurgents across the country, the source said.
Asa'b Ahl al-Haq is a Shiite militia that broke away from the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.
They are part of what the US and Iraqi officials earlier named Special Groups, who were allegedly funded, trained and armed by Iran's Quds Force during the US occupation of Iraq and later became allied to the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.
The battles in Tal Afar pushed most of its 250,000 population to flee their homes, mainly to the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan and the city of Sinjar, some 60 km west of Tal Afar.
Sinjar is the mixed city of mainly Shiite and Sunni Turkomans, in addition to the Kurds and other ethnic and religious minorities.
The Sunni-majority province of Nineveh and its capital Mosul have long been a stronghold for insurgent groups, including Al Qaeda militants, since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Large parts of the province are now in the hands of militant groups since last week after bloody clashes with Iraqi security forces.