Iraq bombing ISIL-held Tal Afar ahead of assault

ARBIL, Iraq – Reuters

Iraqi forces are carrying out air strikes on Tal Afar, a town held by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) west of Mosul, in preparation for a ground assault, an Iraqi military spokesman said on Aug. 15.

ISIL’s self-proclaimed caliphate effectively collapsed last month, when U.S.-backed Iraqi forces completed the recapture of Mosul, the militants’ capital in northern Iraq, after a nine-month campaign.

Parts of Iraq and Syria remain however under ISIL  control, especially along the border.

Iraqi authorities had said Tal Afar, 80 kilometers west of Mosul, will be the next target in the war on ISIL, which swept through parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.

The town, which had about 200,000 residents before falling to ISIL, experienced cycles of sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and has produced some of ISIL’s most senior commanders.

“The preparations are under way, there are strikes aimed at wearing them down and keeping them busy, targeting their command and control centers, their depots...these strikes have been going on for some time,” Iraqi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool said in a statement.

“We are waiting for the commander in chief of the armed forces [Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi] to give the orders for the liberation battle to start.”

Earlier on Aug. 15, Baghdad-based al-Sumariya TV quoted Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Khodari as saying the ground attack should start after the aerial bombardment campaign.

One of Iraq’s senior military commanders, Major-General Najm al-Jabouri, told Reuters last month that between 1,500 and 2,000 militants were in Tal Afar, a figure which possibly includes some family members who support them.

The U.S.-led coalition is also keeping up its support to the Iraqi forces’ campaign to end the militants’ presence all over the country.

Coalition spokesman Colonel Ryad Dillon said last week that the coalition carried out more than 50 strikes in the past week against ISIL defensive positions, headquarters, weapons caches, and bomb factories in Tal Afar and also Kisik Junction to the east.

“We fully expect this to be a difficult fight to root out ISIS from one of their last strongholds in Iraq,” Dillon told a news briefing.

Jabouri had a different assessment of the battle, expecting a relatively easy victory because the militants and their families there are “worn out and demoralized.”

ISIL has also lost swathes of Syrian territory to separate campaigns being waged by Syrian government forces backed by Russia and Iran and by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic (SDF) Forces, which is dominated by the Syrian Kurdish YPG. The SDF is currently focused on capturing Raqqa city from ISIL.