Iraq's mainly Shia pro-government militias say they have reached Kurdish Peshmerga positions west of Mosul, cutting off the Daesh stronghold from the rest of Iraq and from Syria.
Peshmerga sources confirm that the Popular Mobilization militias have gained control of the road leading south-west from the Daesh-held town of Tel Afar west of Mosul towards the Syrian border.
The militia advance means local Daesh forces are surrounded in a pocket between the eastern outskirts of Mosul, where Iraqi troops are pushing into the city against fierce resistance, and the Tel Afar area.
In mid-October, Iraqi forces, backed by a US-led air alliance, started a long-awaited offensive to retake Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and the only one still in the hands of Daesh.
