The liberation of
Ayadiyah and the Tal Afar district was confirmed by Prime Minister Haidar
al-Abadi. He released a statement declaring not only that area, but all of Ninewa now free of the Islamic State. This was a dramatic turn of events. A
few days ago, the Iraqis had to call in reinforcements as they were facing
tough resistance from IS. Then everything collapsed and Ayadiyah was taken in a
quick advance lasting just a day.
What happened to the
IS fighters in Tal Afar has now become part of a conspiracy theory promoted by
Vice President Nouri al-Maliki and his wing of the State of Law list. First, a
State of Law parliamentarian claimed that the
insurgents fled from Tal Afar to Irbil where they surrendered, and that proved
they had a deal with President Massoud Barzani. The MP demanded the Kurds turn
over all the militants that were arrested. Next, Maliki stated that the Islamic State had an agreement with the Abadi government and
the U.S. to flee Tal Afar, and that was why they gave up to the Kurds. Abadi,
Barzani and Washington are all favorite targets of propaganda put out by Maliki
and his allies. He has been talking about conspiracies against him and Iraq
since Mosul fell in 2014 and he was forced out of office.
Three female suicide
bombers attempted to attack the Kurds in the town of Salah al-Maleh north of Ayadiyah.
Three women came into the town amongst a group of displaced. One woman gave up,
but the other two tried to detonate their devices and were killed by the
Peshmerga. Yesterday, there was a successful suicide bombing against the
Peshmerga lines.
The Iraqi forces now
look to be heading towards the Hawija district in southern Kirkuk. The Iraqi
Air Force dropped leaflets over the area telling people that they would be freed soon.
The Joint Operations Command were also putting together a Hawija We Are Coming command to lead the offensive. After Mosul was taken,
some units were already transferred from Ninewa to the Hawija area. Like Mosul there is some debate over
which forces will take part. There are some Kurds and tribal leaders that do not want Shiite Hashd units to take
part. They will be included anyway as they have played a role in all the
previous campaigns. There will be some clearing operations and mopping up in
Tal Afar, and then forces will have to be moved to Hawija, which will take a
few weeks until Hawija is actually assaulted.
SOURCES
Alkhshali, Hamdi,
Smith-Spark, Laura and Tawfeeq, Mohammed, “Iraq prime minister: Tal Afar ‘liberated’
from ISIS,” CNN, 8/31/17
BBC, “IS conflict:
Iraq declares ‘liberation’ of Nineveh province,” 8/31/17
Al Forat, “Urgent:
Millions of leaflets thrown at Hawija in preparation for liberation,” 8/31/17
El-Ghobashy, Tamer
and Salim, Mustafa, “Iraqi military reclaims city of Tal Afar after rapid
Islamic State collapse,” Washington Post, 8/27/17
Habib, Mustafa, “IS
Far From Gone: For Iraq, One Down, Three More Battles To Go,” Niqash, 7/27/17
Iraq Newspaper,
“Iraqi Newspaper Reporter In Tal Afar: Nouri al-Maliki Announced Daash Withdrew
From Tal Afar In Agreement With Abadi And America To Not Fight,” 8/31/17
Al Jazeera, “Iraqi
PM Abadi declares victory over ISIL in Tal Afar,” 8/31/17
Al Maalomah, “Nassif
the flight of Daash in Tal Afar to Irbil is proof of their coordination with
Barzani,” 8/31/17
Al Mada, “The joint
forces complete the liberation of Ayadiyah after 24 hours of storming,” 8/31/17
New Sabah, “Iraqi
Forces participating in the liberation of Mosul preparing to storm Tal Afar
district before heading to Hawija,” 7/23/17
Sotaliraq, "The Peshmerga arrest a suicide
bomber and kill two others who infiltrated with Ayadiyah refugees camp,"
8/31/17
Wardana, “Joint
Operations are preparing to establish headquarters for Hawija We Are Coming,” 8/31/17
Xinhua, “Iraqi PM
declares liberation of Tal Afar area from IS militants,” 8/31/17
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