Iraq declares victory over ISIS in Nineveh province

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq announced Thursday the liberation of Tal Afar, one of the last cities that had been under the control of the Islamic State group, after a battle that lasted just 11 days, a further sign that the extremist group’s days of administering territory in Iraq are on the wane.

With that, al-Abadi said, the whole of Nineveh province, which includes the city of Mosul as well as Tal Afar, was now free of the Islamic State.

The relatively quick victory in Tal Afar, coming on the heels of a grueling and bloody ninemonth fight for Mosul, was not surprising given that the city had been cut off for months and surrounded by pro-government militias who moved on the city last fall as the campaign for Mosul began.

The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, retains control in several other cities and rural districts across Iraq, and in his statement Thursday, al-Abadi had a message for the militants in those places: “Wherever you are, we are coming for liberation, and you have no option but to surrender or die.”

The fight for Tal Afar involved a constellation of Iraqi forces, including elite special forces, the Iraqi army, federal police officers and Shiite militias with ties to Iran, backed by U.S. air power.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, said in a statement Thursday that, with the “historic liberation of Mosul and now a swift and decisive victory in Tal Afar,” the Iraqi security forces had “shown, once again, they are an increasingly capable force that can protect the Iraqi people, defeat ISIS within Iraq and secure the country’s borders.”

In view of the quick victory in Tal Afar, there were rumors that a deal had been struck to allow Islamic State fighters to flee. Lt. Gen. Sami al-Aridhi, a top commander in Iraq’s counterterrorism forces, said that many Islamic State fighters had managed to escape, but not because of any pact with the security forces. Al-Aridhi said that the victory had come quickly largely because there were few civilians in Tal Afar, allowing the Iraqi security forces to bring more destructive firepower to bear.