JAYVEE UPDATE: Iraq Shi’ite paramilitaries close to cutting Mosul supply route.

Six weeks into the U.S.-backed offensive on Mosul, Islamic State is fighting in the area of Tal Afar, 60 km (40 miles) to the west, against a coalition of Iranian-backed groups known as Popular Mobilisation.

Cutting the western road to Tal Afar would seal off Mosul as the city is already surrounded to the north, south and east by Iraqi government and Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

The government’s U.S.-trained Counter Terrorism Service unit breached Islamic State’s defenses at the end of October and is fighting to expand a foothold it gained on the eastern side of Mosul.

The road to Tal Afar is no longer safe, said a truck driver who used it two days ago to bring in fruit and vegetables from Raqqa, Islamic State’s Syrian stronghold.

Well, good.