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Tunnel used in Tal Afar to run from US and Iraqi forces

AP:

Fighting eased Sunday, the second day of a U.S. and Iraqi sweep through the militant stronghold of Tal Afar near the Syrian border, as insurgents melted into the countryside, many escaping through a tunnel network dug under an ancient northern city.

Iraqi and U.S. military officials vowed to expand the offensive.

The 8,500-strong Iraqi-U.S. force continued house-to-house searches, and military leaders said the assault would push all along the Syrian frontier and in the Euphrates River valley.

...

"The terrorists had seen it coming (and prepared) tunnel complexes to be used as escape routes," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said in Baghdad.

Iraqi Defense Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi said the Tal Afar sweep was carried out at the request of city residents and would be a model for his forces as they attacked other insurgent-held cities in quick succession.

"After the Tal Afar operation ends, we will move on Rabiyah (on the Syrian border) and Sinjar (a region north of nearby Mosul) and then go down to the Euphrates valley," al-Dulaimi said.

"We are warning those who have given shelter to terrorists that they must stop, kick them out or else we will cut off their hands, heads and tongues as we did in Tal Afar," al-Dulaimi said, apparently using figurative language.

The SU and Iraqi forces built a berm around the city and then used concertina wire around the section where the enemy was hiding. Did the tunnels extend beneath the berm or were they just to another section of the city outside the wire? My speculation is the latter. Many had been trying to disguise themselves to sneak out of the perimeter, some dressing as women. That is just more evidence that they do not control the battlefield.