Iraqi forces achieved the first goal of a new offensive against the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) on just its second day Friday (September 22nd), penetrating the northern town of al-Sharqat, AFP reported.

Some residents celebrated in the streets as government troops entered the town centre and tore down the black flags of the extremist group who had ruled it with an iron fist for more than three years.

AFP correspondents saw little major damage in the town, although there had been casualties in the fighting as they saw the bodies of two extremists in the back of a pickup.

Al-Sharqat was the first goal of a major offensive launched on Thursday to recapture an ISIS-held enclave centred on the insurgent bastion of al-Hawija, one of just two pockets still controlled by ISIS in Iraq.

Sector operations chief Gen. Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah said some 20 villages around al-Sharqat had also been recaptured from ISIS.

The next goal is al-Hawija itself, some 30 kilometres to the south-east.

After the defeat of ISIS in Mosul in July and the recapture of adjacent areas, al-Hawija and neighbouring towns form the last enclave still held by ISIS in Iraq apart from a section of the Euphrates Valley downstream from the border with Syria.