Hatra Abta

Turkey will reinforce its troop deployments in the border town of Silopi amid a possible Shiite offensive to liberate Tal Afar, which has a sizeable ethnic Turkmen population and is considered a sensitive target for Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said.

Iraqi paramilitaries launched an operation on Oct. 29 to retake the town of Tal Afar from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and cut jihadist supply lines from Mosul to Syria, a spokesman said.