Iraqi forces all out to retake Tal Afar from ISIS control

Tal Afar Airbase: Iraqi forces on Sunday pounded the ISIS group in Tal Afar, one of its last bastions in the country, in a new assault just weeks after ousting them from Mosul.

Once a key ISIS supply hub between Mosul and the Syrian border, Tal Afar is the last major population centre in northern Iraq under jihadist control.

Weeks after recapturing Mosul in a major blow to the jihadists, convoys of Iraqi forces around Tal Afar began pounding ISIS positions from three sides at dawn Sunday.

An AFP correspondent reported mortar fire in the mostly desert area dotted by some farmland, with columns of smoke billowing skywards.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the offensive in a pre-dawn televised speech.

Wearing black military fatigues and standing in front of an Iraqi flag and map, he announced “the start of an operation to free Tal Afar”.

“I am saying to Daesh that there’s no choice other than to leave or be killed,” he said, using an alternative acronym for ISIS.