Tal Afar

Iraq has begun an aerial bombardment of Tal Afar, a town under Islamic State control west of Mosul, Baghdad-based al-Sumariya TV said on Tuesday, citing an Iraqi Defence Ministry spokesman.
The ground attack to try to take the city should start when the air campaign is over, the spokesman, Mohammed al-Khodari, said, according to the TV channel.

ISIS may start crumbling into city states. Terrorists from the group declared the Iraqi city Tel Afar in Nineveh province a country which is independent of the Caliphate, according to RIA Novosti. 

Iraqi soldiers are in control of the road linking west Mosul with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-held town of Tal Afar, isolating jihadists in the city, a senior commander said on March 1.

Turkey will contact the new Donald Trump administration over the weekend to focus on "intense issues" such as Syria and the upcoming meeting in Astana, along with bilateral relations, presidential spokesperson İbrahim Kalın has said. 

Iraqi paramilitary forces, the al-Hashd al-Shaabi, announced Nov. 16 that they had entered the Tal Afar airport west of Mosul and were fighting to clear pockets of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists inside it.

Nearly 42,000 people have fled their homes since last month's start of the operation to recapture Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Nov. 9.

A spokesman of a Shiite militia said Nov. 2 that its fighters have gained control of a highway linking the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-held city of Mosul to the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the militants' self-proclaimed caliphate.

Turkish Armed Forces have begun deploying tanks and other armored vehicles from the Ankara-based 28th Mechanized Infantry Brigade to Silopi in Şırnak near the border with Iraq, Anadolu Agency reported Nov. 1, three days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the country would reinforce its troops along its border. 

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.