Coalition: Tal Afar is next target for anti-IS offensives

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, will most likely be the next target for U.S.-backed Iraqi forces seeking to eliminate Islamic State militants from the country, a spokesperson of the U.S.-led coalition against IS.

Col. Ryan Dillon was quoted by Kurdistan-based website Xendan saying that the IS stronghold will be the next target of operations after the Iraqi government declared earlier this month victory over the militant group in Mosul, its largest bastion in Iraq.

Dillon said the coalition continues to pound IS locations on the outskirts of Kirkuk, another province partially held by the militants, as well as Anbar’s Qaim, on the borders with Syria.

Conflicting speculations concerning the next target have surfaced since victory was declared in Mosul.

Besides Tal Afar, IS still holds some areas in southwestern Kirkuk, western Anbar and areas on the borders between Diyala and Salahuddin.

So far, operations by pro-government militias have isolated Tal Afar from the Syrian borders and from Mosul.

On Sunday, Almaalomah website quoted Nineveh council member, Hossam al-Abbar, saying that Tal Afar was the source of most of the recent breaches by IS militants that targeted western Mosul.

Conflicting statements have been frequent regarding the participation of the Shia-led, government-recognized Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in the liberation of Tal Afar, a town of a mixed Shia Arab and Sunni Turkmen population. Sunni Turkey has pressed Baghdad to exclude the PMFs from the anticipated campaign fearing sectarian twists. PMF leaders have, meanwhile, said occasionally that the government was going to engage them in the battle.