Tal Afar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tal Afar (also Tal Afar, Tall Afar, Tell Afar, Tel Afar) (in Arabic: تل عفر, in Kurdish: Telehfer) (also تلعفر) is a city in northern Iraq, about 30 miles west of Mosul. Its population of around 250,000 consists mostly of Kurds and Turkmens.

After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, insurgents used Tal Afar as a staging point for attacks. In September 2004, American forces defeated the insurgents and left about 500 troops in the city. However, Iraqi authorities lost control of the city in May 2005, and insurgents began taking over again. A military operation in June 2005 did not quell the violence; the U.S. launched another offensive in the city in September 2005. More recently, the city has begun a rebuilding campaign.

Tal Afar has also been the scene of sectarian violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. In May 2005, clashes broke out between the two groups. In October 2006, a bombing in Tal Afar killed 14 people, of which ten were civilians and four Iraqi soldiers. An additional bombing, outside a car dealership, November 24, 2006, killed at least 22 and wounded at least 26.