Politics
08:37, 20-Aug-2017
Iraq begins battle to retake ISIL-held city of Tal Afar
["other","Middle East"]
Share
Copied
Iraqi security forces launched a battle on Sunday to take back the city of Tal Afar, a key northen Iraqi bastion of the ISIL group, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said.
"You either surrender or die," Abadi said in a televised speech announcing the offensive, addressing the militants.
"I am saying to Daesh that there's no choice other than to leave or be killed," he added.
A longtime stronghold of hardline Sunni insurgents, Tal Afar, 80 kilometers west of Mosul, was cut off from the rest of the ISIL-held territory in June.
The city is surrounded by Iraqi government troops and Shi'ite volunteers in the south, and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in the north.
About 2,000 battle-hardened militants remain in the city, according to the US and Iraqi military commanders.
ISIL's self-proclaimed "caliphate" effectively collapsed last month, when Iraqi forces completed the takeover of the militants' capital in Iraq, Mosul, after a nine-month campaign.
6300km
Source(s): AFP
,Reuters