Iraqi Forces Begin Battle to Dislodge Daesh from Tal Afar
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iraq has begun an aerial bombardment of Tal Afar, a town under Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) control west of Mosul, a report said.
The ground attack to try to take the city should start when the air campaign is over, Baghdad-based al-Sumariya TV said on Tuesday, citing Iraqi Defense Ministry Spokesman Mohammed al-Khodari, Reuters reported.
Iraqi authorities had said Tal Afar, 80 km (50 miles) west of Mosul, will be the next target in the war on the Takfir group that swept through swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
The terror group’s self-proclaimed “caliphate” effectively collapsed last month, when Iraqi forces completed the recapture of the militants’ capital in Iraq, Mosul, after a nine-month campaign.
Tal Afar, which had about 200,000 residents before falling to Daesh, experienced cycles of sectarian violence after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.