“We are now in the process of cutting the main supply road between Mosul and Raqqa, which runs behind the (Tal Afar) airport,” commander Shiekh Abu Karra Abadi told the Middle East Eye news portal.

"It was crucial for us to clear all this area to the west and cut the road so the Iraqi army can clear Mosul of Daesh without them being able to flee," he added.

The volunteer forces wrested control of Tal Afar airport in Western Mosul late on Wednesday.

Abadi said Daesh elements had retreated, some into Tal Afar city and some to Mosul, adding that hundreds of the militants had put up resistance to defend the supply route to Syria.

Secretary General of Iraq’s Badr Organization Hadi al-Ameri also said the Iraqi soldiers were in control of the area South-West of Mosul and would continue advancing until closing the Iraq-Syria border.

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