Smoke rises during clashes between joint troop of Iraqi army and Shi’ite Popular Mobilization Forces against ISIS in Tal Afar, Iraq August 26, 2017.

:: Iraq’s Ministry of Defense announced on Sunday that Iraqi forces recovered 95 percent of Tal Afar from ISIS, the militant group’s stronghold in the country’s northwest.

After just eight days of fighting, all 29 neighborhoods in Tal Afar city had been taken back from the militant group, the military said in a statement on Sunday.

However, fighting was ongoing in al-‘Ayadiya, a small area 11 kilometres northwest of the city, where militants who fled the district’s city center were hiding out, Iraqi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool said.

Tal Afar was the latest objective in the war on the militant group following the recapture in July of Mosul, where it declared its self-proclaimed caliphate over parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.