Battle of Tal Afar | |||||||
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Part of the Iraq War | |||||||
![]() U.S. Army soldiers and Iraqi soldiers patrolling through downtown Tal Afar, Iraq, September 11, 2005. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
H. R. McMaster Khursheed Saleem Daski | ![]() | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
![]() ![]() | Unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
![]() ![]() | 163 killed 440–700 captured [3] [4] |
The Battle of Tal Afar also known as Operation Restoring Rights [5] was a military offensive conducted by the United States Army and supported by Iraqi forces, to eliminate Al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgents in the city of Tal Afar, Iraq in response to the increase of insurgent attacks against U.S. and Iraqi positions in the area and to end the brutal tactics against the population by the terrorists. [5] Coalition Forces consisted of 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, [5] elements of the 82nd Airborne Division, [4] and two brigades of the Iraqi 3rd Division, all were under the command of Col. H.R. McMaster. AQI had used the city as a staging ground for moving foreign fighters into Iraq since early 2005. [6] The city was temporarily cleared for elections in 2005, but was not secured in a long-term view.
The offensive was launched on September 1, 2005, in a joint United States Army and the New Iraqi Army operation to destroy suspected insurgents' havens and base of operations in Tal Afar. The initial fighting was heavy, but most of the city was secured on September 3. Although sporadic fighting and attacks would continue through most of September until the operation was declared finished on September 18.
Coalition forces developed and executed a detailed, painstaking methodology, that combined intelligence gathering, combat missions and stability programmes to reconstruct Coalition control of the city, one neighbourhood at a time. [7] McMaster directed civilians to evacuate from the city in order to allow his forces to use artillery and attack helicopters to overcome the insurgents' makeshift Fortifications. [6] The local rebels were reportedly led by Amir Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Mawli al-Salbi, an AQI judge and official. [1] Coalition forces fought street-to-street engagements with AQI terrorists and other insurgents, AQI insurgents tried to hold their ground, they also planned and executed coordinated attacks against Coalition troops, they also demonstrated the ability to somewhat command and control the insurgents in the City. [5] Groups of insurgents perhaps hundreds massed to counterattack the advancing US and Iraqi forces, but Abrams tanks and Bradley IFVs "tore them apart." [6] In early September, the insurgents launched a counter-information propaganda campaign; [8] over 17 days, US forces systematically destroyed insurgent cell throughout the city. [4] Despite being encircled, some AQI terrorists escaped the city. [9]
By September 18, the battle was over, Coalition forces succeeded in significantly eliminating AQI and other insurgents from the city, thereby creating a secure environment for the referendum in October and national elections in December 2005, Tal Afar went from being the city with the lowest number of voters to the highest in the country, schools and businesses reopened and the population transitioned back to living a normal life as possible. [5] After the battle, McMaster positioned his troops 29 combat outposts throughout the city to hold the cleared areas, from these outposts they saturated Iraqi neighbourhoods with patrols, once civilians returned to the city, the use of force was minimized. 2nd Battalion 325th Infantry Regiment did not kill any civilians which won the appreciation of the locals; building intelligence on insurgents was made easier with the cooperation of the Shia minority in the city. Similarly McMaster could recruit a police force because the Shia were willing to serve, whereas Sunnis considered the Iraqi Army and police to be their enemy. [6] The operation was considered one of the first successful counterinsurgency operations of the war and President George W. Bush remarked that "the story of Tal Afar gives me confidence in our strategy, because in that city we see the outlines of the Iraq we've been fighting for." [4]
The following is a timeline of major events during the Iraq War, following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
An Iraqi insurgency began shortly after the 2003 American invasion deposed longtime leader Saddam Hussein. It is considered to have lasted until the end of the Iraq War and U.S. withdrawal in 2011. It was followed by a renewed insurgency.
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Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn, more commonly known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq, was a Salafi jihadist organization affiliated with Al-Qaeda. It was founded on 17 October 2004, and was led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri until its disbandment on 15 October 2006.
Operation Phantom Phoenix was a major nationwide offensive launched by the Multinational Force Iraq (MNF-I) on 8 January 2008 in an attempt to build on the success of the two previous corps-level operations, Operation Phantom Thunder and Operation Phantom Strike and further reduce violence and secure Iraq's population, particularly in the capital Baghdad. The offensive consisted of a number of joint Coalition and Iraqi Army operations throughout northern Iraq as well as in the southern Baghdad Belts.
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The Anbar campaign consisted of fighting between the United States military, together with Iraqi security forces, and Sunni insurgents in the western Iraqi governorate of Al Anbar. The Iraq War lasted from 2003 to 2011, but the majority of the fighting and counterinsurgency campaign in Anbar took place between April 2004 and September 2007. Although the fighting initially featured heavy urban warfare primarily between insurgents and U.S. Marines, insurgents in later years focused on ambushing the American and Iraqi security forces with improvised explosive devices (IEDs), large scale attacks on combat outposts, and car bombings. Almost 9,000 Iraqis and 1,335 Americans were killed in the campaign, many in the Euphrates River Valley and the Sunni Triangle around the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.
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This is a timeline of events during the War in Iraq in 2016.