Iraqis make quick work of recapturing Tal Afar

CNN:
Iraqi forces have now seized control of most of the strategically significant city of Tal Afar from ISIS, the Iraqi Joint Military Command said Saturday.

Iraqi Joint Military Command spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool said units from the joint Iraqi forces are in full control of 60% of the "operational area" and 90% of the city center of Tal Afar.

The offensive to retake the key northwestern city from ISIS started Sunday. Several divisions of Iraqi security, including the American-trained Counter Terrorism Forces, were advancing on Tal Afar from different sides.

The commander of the Tal Afar operation, Abdulamir Yarallah, said Saturday that units of the 9th Armored Division and the Popular Mobilization Units, also known as the Hashd al-Shaabi, had captured al-Muthanna 2 district and the Tal Afar Hospital.

Earlier in the day, Yarallah said counterterrorism forces had "raised the Iraqi flag" in the central areas of The Citadel and al-Basateen.

Only a small area remains under ISIS control, in the north of the city, according to a map released by the Iraqi Joint Military Command.
...
ISIS appears to be collapsing in almost all of the territory they once claimed as their caliphate.

Tal Afar gained some notoriety early in the Iraq war when current national security advisor H.R. McMaster was one of the first commanders to successfully use counterinsurgency tactics to defeat al Qaeda in Iraq, the precursor to ISIS.

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