Iraqi Forces Freed Tal Afar in only 8 Days

ISIS’ chief remaining stronghold in Tal Afar, northwest Iraq, was almost entirely recaptured by the Iraqi forces.

Iraqi military said in a statement on Sunday that almost all the 29 districts of Tal Afar was freed from the ISIS fighters in only eight days of combat.

According to General Yahya Rasool, Iraqi military spokesman, the battle was in progress and ISIS fighters who fled the city center took shelter in al-‘Ayadiya, a small neighborhood which is located 11 kilometers northwest of the city. Iraqi forces wanted to, first take back the area and then declare victory over ISIS in Tal Afar.

Liberating Tal Afar was the latest major objective of the Iraqi forces in war with the ISIS, since recapturing the city of Mosul in July. In 2014, when ISIS had surfaced, its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared caliphate over Iraq and Syria in the medieval al-Nuri mosque.

On Aug.20 the Iraqi forces started offensive on Tal Afar from the supply route between Syria and ex-ISIS stronghold in Mosul. In accord with Iraqi sources’ reports, more Than 2,000 ISIS militants were defending the city against 50,000 Iraqi forces.

Quick fall of the ISIS forces in Tal Afar, confirmed the Iraqi military reports which concluded that the terrorists lacked command and control west of Mosul.

Tal Afar residents who had fled the city days before the Iraqi forces attacked, said the militants were “exhausted” and “depleted.”

On Saturday, elite Iraqi forces cleared the center of the city and raised the national flag on the citadel building.

The Ottoman-era architecture of Tal Afar was destroyed by the ISIS terrorists in 2014. A Shia element who is fighting with the Iraqi forces said: “We tried to push out the militants without doing too much damage. We only used light weaponry.”

After the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, sectarian violence escalated between Sunnis and Shias in Tal Afar. Many senior commanders of the ISIS were from Tal Afar.

Seyyed #Houthi, the leader of Ansar Allah in #Yemen, warned the world leaders from Saudi Arabia, whom is a major exporter of the kind of jihadist ideology that drives groups like al-Qaeda and the Deash.

Source : Website