Iraqi forces today launched an assault to retake the northern city of Tal Afar from the Islamic State group, after ousting the militants from Mosul last month. Tal Afar lies around 70 kilometres west of second city Mosul, which Iraqi forces recaptured in early July in a major blow to the militants.<br/><br/>In a televised speech early today, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, dressed in military uniform and standing in front of an Iraqi flag and map of the country, announced the start of an operation to free Tal Afar. Several hours after the start of the battle, the federal police said it had retaken the village of Al-Abra al-Sghira west of Tal Afar.<br/><br/>IS militants in June 2014 overran Tal Afar, a Shiite enclave in the predominantly Sunni province of Nineveh, on the road between Mosul and Syria. Abadi said that Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary forces would help army, police and counter-terrorism units to retake Tal Afar.

In Iraq, security forces today launched an offensive to take back the city of Tal Afar. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said, this is their next objective in the US-backed campaign to defeat the Islamic State terror group. In a televised speech, he advised the terrorists either to surrender or be prepared to die.<br/>A longtime stronghold of hardline Sunni insurgents, Tal Afar, 80 kilometers west of Mosul, was cut off from the rest of the Islamic State-held territory in June.<br/>According to US and Iraqi Military commanders, about 2,000 terrorists remain in the city. The Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate collapsed last month, when US-backed Iraqi forces completed the takeover of Mosul, after a nine-month campaign.<br/><br/>