The Iraqi City Of Tal Afar Is The Next Major Battle Against The Islamic State

The Independent: 'Isis is full of killers, the worst come from Tal Afar': Bitter fight for city ahead and the violence may not end there

The city of Tal Afar has become notorious for sectarian hatred - with many worried that even an Isis defeat on the road to Mosul will not bring peace

Tal Afar is a small city notorious for sectarian hatred and slaughter, which may soon be engulfed by a final battle between Isis and its bitterest enemies. Shia paramilitaries seeking revenge for past massacres of their co-religionists may soon assault the place which has provided many of the most feared Isis commanders, judges and religious officials.

“Isis is full of killers, but the worst killers of all come Tal Afar,” says a senior Iraqi official who did not want his name published. Abbas, a 47-year-old Shia Turkman from Tal Afar living in exile in the Kurdish city of Zakho, agrees, saying that several of the senior military commandersof the self-declared Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi come from there. He adds that officers from the Shia paramilitaries have been told that they will soon attack the city. The Turkmen are on of Iraq's smaller minorities but important because of their links to Isis and to Turkey.

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WNU Editor: It loks like this city is the symbol of sectarian hatred and slaughter in Iraq.