BAGHDAD (Dispatches) -- An Iraqi government-sanctioned paramilitary force moved on Monday to capture a key town beyond the city of Mosul from Daesh, tightening its grip on series of towns and villages near the Syrian border, officials said.
The Iraqi territory taken by the Popular Mobilization force connected with land held by U.S.-backed Kurdish militants on the Syrian side, creating a possible bridge.
In a statement on its website, Popular Mobilization described its advance through Iraq to the border with Syria as "a Ramadan miracle", referring to the Muslim fasting month which started over the weekend.
Iraq last October launched a wide-scale military offensive to recapture Mosul and the surrounding areas, with various Iraqi military, police and paramilitary forces taking part in the operation. The city's eastern half was declared liberated in January, and the push for the city's western section, separated from the east by the Tigris River, began the following month.
According to lawmaker Karim al-Nouri, the Popular Mobilization Forces known as Hashd al-Shaabi seeks to drive Daesh militants out of the center of strategic Baaj, west of Mosul near the border with Syria. Al-Nouri said the surrounding villages have already been taken from Daesh.
Once Baaj falls, he told The Associated Press, the fight with Daesh will move to the Syrian border.
"Baaj is a strategic town for Daesh as it is the last supply line" linking Daesh with Syria, said Sheikh Sami al-Masoudi, a PMF leader. "Once we reach the border, we will erect a dirt barricade and dig a trench to derail their (Daesh) move," he added.
By afternoon, a brigade from the PMF reached the Syrian border for the first time, taking Um Jrais village, al-Masoudi later said.
Hashim al-Mousawi, a leader with al-Nujaba militia, which is also part of the PMF, said the troops are ready to move inside Syrian territories but that this needs Iraqi government approval.
The PMF has largely operated since October in the desert to the west of Mosul, trying to cut Daesh supply lines.
On the Syrian side of the border, U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, Daesh militants and other militants are fighting for territory. President Bashar Assad's forces and their allies have also been on the offensive, moving toward the Iraqi and Jordanian border but are still far from reaching it.
On May 18, a U.S. airstrike hit Syrian government forces that the U.S. claimed posed a threat to American troops and allied terrorists operating near the border with Jordan. The attack was the first such close confrontation between American troops and Syrian forces.
Syrian activists said leaflets were dropped Sunday on advancing Syrian soldiers and their allies, warning them to stay away from the border crossing of Tanf. "Any movements toward Tanf will be considered hostile and we will defend our forces," the U.S. leaflet read.
In Mosul, Iraqi forces began a new offensive to drive Daesh militants from the remaining pockets of territory that the Takfiri militants still hold in the Old City, in Mosul's western half. The Daesh hold on Mosul has shrunk to just a handful of neighborhoods in and around the Old City district where narrow streets and a dense civilian population are expected to complicate the fight.
Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul fell to Daesh in the summer of 2014 as the militants swept over much of the country's north and central areas. Weeks later the head of the Takfiri group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced the formation of a self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria from the pulpit of a Mosul mosque.