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According to the Arabic-language al-Sumeria television news agency, the paramilitary fighters, consisting of some 40 mainly Shia Muslim groups, reached the Syrian border in the north on Monday, and are further tightening the noose around ISIS in the strategic town of al-Ba'aj, PressTV reported.

"The Hashd al-Sha’abi forces just reached the Iraqi-Syrian border," announced Secretary General of Iraq’s Badr Organization Hadi al-Ameri on Monday, adding that their fighters were already stationed in the border village of Um Geris.

Earlier in the day, the pro-government forces liberated the two villages of Taro and Wadi al-Midar, both located west of al-Qahtanyia area, which was completely freed on Sunday.

The two villages are also located north of the flashpoint town of Ba'aj, which, according to Sheikh Sami al-Masoudi, another Hashd al-Sha’abi leader, "is a strategic town for ISIS as it is the last supply line," linking the terror group with war-torn Syria.

Masoudi, whose remarks came shortly before Ameri's announcement of reaching the Syrian border, added that as soon as the PMU forces reached the border, they "will erect a dirt barricade and dig a trench to derail ISIS move."

The Hashd al-Sha’abi forces, backed by the air force, launched a major offensive last Monday to liberate Ba'aj and its surrounding villages and areas from the grips of ISIS, trying to reach the Syrian border and cutting the vital supply line of the terror group, whose days are numbered in Mosul, their last urban bastion in the Arab country.

The PMU forces reportedly number more than 100,000 fighters. Iraqi authorities say there are between 25,000 and 30,000 Sunni tribal fighters within their ranks in addition to Kurdish Izadi and Christian units.

The fighters have played a major role in the liberation of ISIS-held areas to the south, northeast and north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, ever since the terrorists launched an offensive in the country in June 2014.

The full liberation of Mosul would spell the end for the Iraqi half of ISIS's so-called caliphate.

*(Image: Fighters with the paramilitary troops of Hashd al-Sha’abi stand on a road on the Syrian-Iraqi border, shortly after they reached the area on May 29, 2017.).