Iraq launches campaign to capture town from ISIS

ABU GHADDUR, Iraq — U.S.-backed Iraqi forces on Sunday launched a multipronged assault to retake the town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, marking the next phase in the country’s war on the Islamic State group.

Tal Afar and the surrounding area is one of the last pockets of Islamic Stateheld territory in Iraq after victory was declared in July in Mosul, the country’s second-largest city. The town, about 95 miles east of the Syrian border, sits along a major road that was once a key supply route for Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

“The city of Tal Afar will be liberated and will join all the liberated cities,” Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a televised speech Sunday. He was dressed in a black uniform of the type worn by Iraqi special forces.

He called on the militants to “surrender or die.”

By early afternoon, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Rasheed Yar Allah, who commands the operation, said the forces had recaptured a series of villages east, southwest and northwest of town.

The U.S.-led coalition providing air and other support to the troops praised what it said was a “capable, formidable, and increasingly professional force.”

“They are well prepared to deliver another defeat” to Islamic State in Tal Afar, the coalition said in a statement.

On the front lines, smoke could be seen rising in the distance as U.S. and Belgian special forces worked with Iraqi troops to establish a position on the roof of a house. They later fired mortar rounds and launched drones.

Iraqi army Lt. Gen. Riyad Jalal Tawfiq said Islamic State had deployed small teams of attackers as well as suicide car bombs and roadside bombs.

The Coalition estimates that approximately 10,00050,000 civilians remain in and around Tal Afar. In past battles, Islamic State prevented civilians from fleeing and used them as human shields, slowing Iraqi advances.

Hours after announcing the operation, the United Nations expressed concern over the safety of the civilians, calling on warring parties to protect them.

Iraqi authorities have set up a toll-free number and a radio station to help guide fleeing civilians to safety.

A stepped-up campaign of airstrikes and a troop buildup has already forced tens of thousands to flee Tal Afar, threatening to compound a humanitarian crisis sparked by the Mosul operation. Nearly a million people remain displaced by the ninemonth campaign to retake Mosul.