Tal Afar

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Tal Afar (Turkish: Telafer) is a Turkmen city and district in northwestern Iraq in the Nineveh Province located approximately 63 km west of Mosul, 52 km east of Sinjar and 200 km north west of Kirkuk. Tal Afar is the biggest Turkmen city in Iraq.

While no official census data exists, the city which had been assessed to have a population of approximately 200,000, nearly all of whom are Iraqi Turkmen. About 75% of the population is Sunni Muslim, while 25% is Shi’ites Muslim .While most residents can speak Arabic, Turkic language is the most common language used throughout the city.

Sometime during the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Turkish Army founded the city as a sole military outpost constructed on top of a hill. Remains of the fortress can still be seen today. Also garrisoned at the fortress were Turkmen members of the Daloodi tribe who following the withdrawal of the Ottoman Army became the first civilian occupants of the town built around the fortress. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Tal Afar was included in Iraq. In 1920, Tal Afar was used as a base of operations for a planned revolt against the then ruling British.

Daesh (ISIL) took over this city in June 2014, and still controls it to this day. One major reason why the city has not been recaptured by Kurdish forces yet is because the Kurds fear they would not be welcomed by the local Turkmen community, which has not been historically friendly to the Kurds.
26.08.17 Iraqi forces came close to taking control of the entire city of Tal Afar after heavy fighting