Defeat of ISIS shows how Iraqis have grown

Factions cooperate to knock terrorists out of Tal Afar

A lightning offensive that ousted the Islamic State from one of its last strongholds in Iraq reflects vast improvements in Iraq’s security forces and a demoralized enemy, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Monday.

The success of the offensive in Tal Afar on Sunday highlights a growing level of cooperation among armed factions in Iraq, said Lukman Faily, a former Iraqi ambassador to the United States. Government-sanctioned Shiite militias helped isolate the area while Iraq’s military thrust into Tal Afar, about 50 miles west of the recently liberated city of Mosul. Faily called the victory a sig- nificant “morale booster” for

Iraq’s government.

The collapse of the terror group’s defenses in Tal Afar marks a milestone in a U.S.-aided campaign to free the last remaining Iraqi territory held by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, more than three years after the militants invaded the country from neighboring Syria.

Iraqi forces launched the offensive Aug. 20 on five different fronts, rapidly overwhelming the ISIS fighters. “It went very quickly,” said U.S. Army Col. Ryan Dillon, a coalition spokesman. “We went into this planning for the worst.”

Few civilians remained in the city, which allowed Iraq’s security forces to advance quickly against militants attempting to defend the area, the coalition said. The pace of the campaign was in contrast to the offensive to liberate Mosul, a much larger city. That effort took nine months because tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians were trapped and often were used as human shields by ISIS.

Iraq’s military, which announced Sunday that Tal Afar had been “liberated,” was still clearing numerous pockets of resistance north of the city.

In 2014, ISIS militants swept into Iraq, capturing Mosul, the country’s second-largest city, as well as Ramadi and Fallujah, important Sunni cities in western Iraq.

The militants controlled a large chunk of the country, the capital, Baghdad, was at risk of falling into their hands, and Iraq’s military was in disarray.

Since then, Iraqi forces have been rebuilt with the help of U.S. arms and equipment and coalition trainers and advisers. Airstrikes by a U.S.-led coalition increased as Iraqi ground forces made progress against militants in key cities. Iraq’s reconstituted military recaptured Ramadi and Fallujah last year.

Threats posed by ISIS remain, as evidenced by a car bomb Monday in eastern Baghdad that killed at least 12 people. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

Several thousand militants remain in a string of remote villages in western Iraq along the Euphrates River Valley, which extends into Syria. Recapturing the area is critical to gain control over the border, Faily said.

Militants hold Hawija, a town in northern Iraq, with about 1,000 fighters, according to the coalition. As long as the militants hold Hawija, they can threaten Kirkuk, a major city east of the town.

Coalition airstrikes have ramped up in the remaining ISIS strongholds over the past week. A decision on when to launch ground operations in those areas will be made by Iraq’s government, the coalition said.

Efforts have gained momentum to drive ISIS from Syria as well. A U.S.-backed force of Kurds and Arab militias are fighting to recapture Raqqa, the Islamic State’s de facto capital in Syria.