(VOVworld) - Iraqi security forces on Sunday retook control of 11 villages from the Islamic State group around the group's stronghold of Mosul.

Shiite force in an operation to quell IS in Salmani, South of Mosul on October 30 (Photo: AFP/ VNA)

In the framework of a campaign launched on October 17, thousands of government forces, together with Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces, moved towards Mosul from the North, East and South. The paramilitary units of Hashd Shaabi continued their operation launched on Saturday to advance across the vast rugged land southwest of Mosul toward the town of Tal-Afar, some 70 km west of Mosul. The city, 400 kilometers from North of Baghdad, fell to IS in 2014.