U.S. forces help Iraqis breach ISIS stronghold
BAGHDAD — The Iraqi army, backed by U.S. airstrikes and special operations commandos, punched through an outer ring of Islamic State defenses Tuesday in a threeday-old push to reclaim Tal Afar, the militants’ last major stronghold in northern Iraq.
Iraqi tanks and armored vehicles stormed across the desert while Iraqi special forces moving in from the northeast breached a thick city wall, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.
U.S. commanders say the offensive against the estimated 2,500 militants in and around Tal Afar will be grinding because militants built extensive defenses.
Recapturing Tal Afar would cut off one of Islamic State’s last routes to move supplies and fighters to and from Syria, about 60 miles farther west, and mark a milestone in the bitter three-year effort to defeat the group that once controlled a third of Iraq.
“The fighting is tough, but the momentum is with our partners,” Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the top U.S. general in Iraq, said in Baghdad.
Townsend met Tuesday with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who arrived on a previously unannounced visit to consult with U.S. commanders, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Defense Minister Arfan al-Hayali.
Mattis also met with Massoud Barzani, president of the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq.
The Tal Afar offensive follows a grueling ninemonth campaign to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and capital of Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate.
Many Islamic State leaders fled Mosul during the fighting. The whereabouts of several senior commanders, including founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, are not known.
Islamic State, also known as ISIS, “is on the run and they have been shown to be unable to stand up to our team, have not retaken one inch of ground,” Mattis told reporters.
Mattis cited the progress in Iraq and the U.S.-backed operation in Syria to retake Raqqa, the militant’s selfdeclared capital in that country.
Brig. Gen. Andrew Croft, who leads the air campaign in Iraq, said the militants have shown less ability to defend their ground and launch counterattacks over the last three months.
“It appears more fractured, less robust, and sort of flimsy, is the word I would use,” Croft said.
U.S. special operations forces are helping direct airstrikes against ISIS positions in Tal Afar. U.S.-led coalition warplanes have launched about 150 airstrikes in and around the city to help Iraqi forces advance against vehicleborne bombs, militant snipers and mortar teams.
Michael Knights, Iraq analyst at the non-partisan Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Iraqi security forces are experienced in urban combat but exhausted after their hardwon victory in Mosul.
“Right now we can expect about 15 brigades — totaling about 15,000 to 22,000 troops — to take part, which is sufficient to crack Tal Afar by December,” he said.
Iraqi army divisions, its counterterrorism service and federal police are supporting the multipronged operation. There are also militia fighters under the umbrella of the Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces advancing toward the city.
The Shiite militias were barred from participating in the Mosul offensive because of objections from Turkey, the United States and other countries who see the Popular Mobilization Forces as undisciplined and loyal to Iran.
Tal Afar had a population of about 200,000, chiefly Sunni Muslims and Turkmen, before Islamic State captured it in 2014. An estimated 30,000 civilians fled the city before the battle, but an estimated 20,000 civilians remain trapped there.
Asked about concerns that U.S. airstrikes had caused civilian casualties, Mattis replied that “no military in the world’s history has paid more attention to limiting civilian casualties.”