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The clamour is growing in America and Britain for troops to be brought home. Violence grips large parts of the country. But elsewhere the green shoots of recovery are showing through the rubble The cycle of murder and vengeance grinds quickly in Iraq. Last week, in the western city of Tal Afar, it was all over in 10 minutes. No one saw how Jamil Salem Jamil, aged 19, arrived. If he was driven to his target, then the car stayed out of sight. A slim Sunni youth, with a thick crop of black hair above his elongated features, he walked...

WASHINGTON, March 31, 2007 – Coalition and Iraqi forces are working with city leaders to secure the Iraqi city of Tal Afar after a bombing at a market killed more than 80 people earlier this week, a military official said today in a briefing from the city. “It’s been a tremendously busy four days, tremendously stressful four days,” Army Lt. Col. Malcom Frost, commander of 3rd Squadron, 4th U.S. Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, told journalists from Forward Operating Base Sykes in Tal Afar. “But … the city is now secure and going back to...

The Iraqi government raised the death toll on Saturday from a truck bomb in the town of Tal Afar to 152, making it the deadliest single bombing of the four-year-old war. Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Abdul Kareem Khalaf said 347 people were wounded in Tuesday's attack on a Shi'ite area. Khalaf said 100 homes had been destroyed in the main blast, which officials have blamed on al Qaeda. The explosion left a 23-metre (75-ft)-wide crater. "It took us a while to recover all the bodies from underneath the rubble of the homes ... What did they achieve by using two...

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2007 ? U.S. and Iraqi officials have condemned a terrorist attack that killed dozens of civilians in Tal Afar, Iraq, yesterday. ?The Multinational Force Iraq commander joins the Iraqi prime minister in condemning the acts of violence and in calling upon the citizens of Tal Afar and all parties to cooperate in stemming the violence,? officials said in a statement released today. ?The coalition force stands ready to lend assistance to our Iraqi partners in the coming days as well as to assist in enforcing the rule of law.? Press reports put the number of dead...

Excerpt - BAGHDAD - Security and police officials said off-duty Shiite policemen enraged by massive bombings in the northern town of Tal Afar went on a revenge killing spree there Wednesday, gunning down an unspecified number of Sunni residents. They said the policemen began roaming the town's Sunni neighborhoods early in the morning, shooting at Sunni residents and homes. Dozens of Sunnis were killed or wounded, they said, but they had no precise figures. The shooting continued for more than two hours, the officials said. ~ snip ~

HH: Pleased to welcome Chief Warrant Officer Chris to the program. Chris has completed three tours in Iraq. Thank you for your service, Chris. What’s on your mind? Chris. Thank you, sir. Well, I wanted to comment on your last, and a number of other callers. His first point, to keep the soldiers in the Green Zone, and your counter, keep them on other bases, not an option. As soldiers, we know that it’s not a safe job. If we wanted a safe job, we’d do a checkout at a grocery store or some similar job. We know it’s a...

The investigation into the shooting death of Spc. Alyssa Peterson found her suicide came soon after she was reassigned for objecting to prisoner interrogation techniques but did not specifically give a reason for her action. A Flagstaff soldier who died in Iraq committed suicide after she refused to participate in interrogation techniques being practiced by her U.S. Army intelligence unit, according to a report about an Army investigation aired by a Flagstaff radio station. U.S. Army Spc. Alyssa R. Peterson, 27, died Sept. 15, 2003, in Tel Afar, an Iraqi city of about 350,000 residents in the northern part of...

BAGHDAD, Sept 12 (KUNA) -- Al-Iraqiya satellite television channel on Monday aired video footage showing dead bodies of Iraqi people, including children, mutilated by gunmen in the city of Tal Afar, northern Iraq. It showed photos of Iraqi children between the ages of six and 17, with their bodies and faces mutilated while lying down in their bedrooms, in addition to other photos of demolished and looted houses. The station also aired video footage of Tal Afar residents in camps outside the city, as they were forced to leave due to bombings and terror threats.

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. Army commander asserted Tuesday that extremist fighters in northern Iraq committed atrocities against civilians, including beheadings, torture and the booby-trapping of a murdered child's body. "The enemy here did just the most horrible things you can imagine _ in one case murdering a child, placing a booby trap within the child's body and waiting for the parent to come recover the body of their child and exploding it to kill the parents; beheadings and so forth," McMaster said in an interview from Tal Afar with reporters at the Pentagon. His comments came two days after the...

TALL AFAR, Iraq, Sept. 4 -- Under the cover of a moonless night, U.S. soldiers on Sunday strung nearly a mile of razor-sharp concertina wire across the northern edge of a neighborhood dominated by insurgents to prevent them from fleeing without a showdown. Several small teams of five or six troops quickly uncoiled spools of wire and fastened it along the deserted sidewalk of a broad thoroughfare. The cordon was intended to prevent insurgents from blending in with the hundreds of people who fled the city during heavy clashes Sunday. "The idea is to trap them in Sarai or force...

COLORADO SPRINGS - An Iraqi mayor stood before troops lined up on the lawn at Fort Carson on Friday morning and said only two words in English. But those two words brought the crowd to its feet. "Thank you." It was a telling gesture from Tal Afar Mayor Najim Al Jibouri, who spoke for about 20 minutes in his native tongue praising the 3rd Armored Cavalry for saving his city from certain ruin.

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2006 – For the third straight day, coalition aircrews targeted an abandoned train station in Ramadi today, and a terrorist bomb detonated in a crowded area of Tal Afar last night, military officials in Iraq reported. Coalition forces have delivered precision munitions at the same train station multiple times in the past three days in response to hostile insurgent activity, officials said, adding that the station is a known hub of insurgent activity. Officials did not provide a casualty or damage assessment. Last night's Tal Afar attack left at least 16 Iraqi civilians dead and 134 others...

TAL AFAR, Iraq — Staff Sgt. Jeff Anderson had barely searched the room before he got a bad vibe. The rest of the house was filled with furniture and “lots of nice things,” he said, but this room was different. It had a simple wood couch, a wall closet and a framed poster. That’s all. The 24-year-old Montgomery, Ala., native tugged the poster off the wall. There was a ventlike opening behind it — the kind of place where insurgents stash weapons. He dragged the couch over to boost himself up and have a peek. “I pulled the couch away...

AH-64 Apache and Predator drone gun camera footage in Tall Afar, Iraq(New video of them destroying insurgents)

WASHINGTON, March 21, 2006 – The commander of the Army unit that played a key role in routing terrorists from Tal Afar, Iraq, last fall agreed today with President Bush's assertion that headway in the city represents a concrete example of progress taking place in Iraq. Army Col. H.R. McMaster, commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and senior U.S. officer during "Operation Restoring Rights," said during television news interviews today the effort helped win over Iraqis who might have doubted the coalition's intentions. It also demonstrated that Iraqi security forces are gaining in capabilities and proving themselves as partners...

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2006 – President Bush today pointed to the dramatic turnaround in Tal Afar, Iraq -- a city once gripped by terrorist oppression that's now undergoing a vibrant revitalization -- as concrete evidence that the national strategy for victory in Iraq is working. Speaking at the City Club of Cleveland, a free speech forum, the president said developments in Tal Afar show clear progress on the political, security and economic fronts and proof that the Iraqi people want to live in freedom. Calling the northern Iraqi city with its diverse population "a microcosm of Iraq," the president said...

RUTBAH, Iraq (AP) - U.S. Marines used to patrol the streets of this city near the volatile Syrian border. Now they've penned it in with a wall of sand, leaving only three ways in or out. While causing discomfort to the townspeople, the military says it is an effective barrier to insurgents and frees up troops for use in other parts of restive Anbar province in western Iraq. The Marines ringed Rutbah with a 10.5-mile-long berm, seven feet high and 20 feet wide, in mid-January and reduced their presence to checkpoints at the three entrances that also are manned by...

An Iraqi mayor has written a dramatic letter to the commander of coalition forces, praising U.S. troops as "lion hearts" and "knights" for liberating his city from al Qaeda terrorists. The emotional letter from gallant Tal' Afar Mayor Najim Abdullah Abid Al-Jibouri to Gen. George Casey is circulating among military families over the Internet and has created a surge of pride in troops. Al-Jibouri's letter calls soldiers of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, who carried out recent anti-terrorist operations in Tal' Afar "lion hearts," who "bristle with the confidence of knights in a bygone era." He said the troops transformed his...

The US 3rd Armored Cavalry regiment is leaving Tal Afar [Iraq] in a month or so. They are cycling back home to their families after a year in Iraq. They will be replaced by the 1st Brigade of the 1st Armored Division. But the mayor of Tal Afar doesn't want them to go. "For [the 3rd ACR] to leave is like a surgeon leaving in the middle of an operation...We don't doubt there are many fine officers in the American army, but during these months, Colonel Hickey and I have created a relationship where I know what he will say...

In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall’ Afar from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life. To the lion-hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of terrorists who were beheading men, women and children in the streets for many months. To those who spread smiles on the faces of our children, and gave us restored hope, through their personal sacrifice and brave fighting, and gave new life to...

Iraqi mayor thanks American troops The following comes from Col. Ren Hart. We know this is happening – we just don't hear it enough. John B. Dwyer As I'm sure you know, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment has been serving in Iraq (its second deployment there) for the past year. As the regiment prepares to come home, it has received the letter pasted below. I believe many of you will find it an interesting counterpoise to much of what we read in the press. From:  Mayor of Tall 'Afar, Ninewa, Iraq In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful To the Courageous...

A letter from the Mayor of Tall 'Afar, Iraq to the men and women of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and their families. In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall’ Afar from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life. To the lion-hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of terrorists who were beheading men, women and children in the streets for many months. To those who spread smiles...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2006 – The efforts of the U.S. military and Iraqi security forces in Tal Afar, Iraq, have transformed the region from an insurgent hotbed to an area of life and hope with restored security, a U.S. military commander in the area said today. When the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment arrived in the region in summer 2005, Tal Afar was a support base that insurgents used to organize, train and equip terrorist cells, the unit's commander, Army Col. H.R. McMaster, said in a live news conference from Tikrit. Insurgents were drawn to the area because of its access...

A US commander has declared a "fragile victory" in Tal Afar overnight four months after a US-led military operation to break the hold of Al-Qaeda and other insurgents in the northern Iraqi city. Colonel H.R. McMaster said ethnic strife between Turkomen Shiite and Sunni communities is ending, and residents are now cooperating with authorities to keep insurgents from slipping back. The army colonel, who commands the 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment, said the turnaround marks a major physical and psychological defeat for the insurgents, who lost a vital safe haven near the Syrian border. "But, certainly, it's a fragile victory," he...

Breaking headline. Details to follow.

TIKRIT, Iraq (Army News Service, Jan. 6, 2006) – U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) met with Soldiers from his home state and local Iraqi leaders during a visit to the northwestern Iraqi city of Tal Afar Jan. 4. Reed was hosted by the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, headquartered at Forward Operating Base Sykes. After receiving an operational update from the regiment, the former Army Ranger met with several troopers from his home state. Reed’s visit surprised one of his constituents, Pfc. Christopher Wright, a 20-year-old tank crewman from Ashaway, R.I. “I was pretty surprised when my first sergeant came to...

Tal Afar Sees Progress With Water Network Completed By Polli Barnes Keller Special to American Forces Press Service MOSUL, Iraq, Dec. 29, 2005 – Workers have completed the water network in Tal Afar, Iraq, an $85,000 project that improved the water supply of 115 homes, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials reported. The Corps of Engineers awarded the contract and oversaw work quality. "This project is unique, because the work was awarded to a state-owned contractor," said Bill Hood, senior construction manager, USACE Gulf Region North. "It was an opportunity to promote goodwill between the (local) director of water and...

MOSUL, Iraq, Dec. 29, 2005 – Workers have completed the water network in Tal Afar, Iraq, an $85,000 project that improved the water supply of 115 homes, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials reported. The Corps of Engineers awarded the contract and oversaw work quality. "This project is unique, because the work was awarded to a state-owned contractor," said Bill Hood, senior construction manager, USACE Gulf Region North. "It was an opportunity to promote goodwill between the (local) director of water and the USACE by using a local contractor. The final outcome is we received a quality product at lower-than-normal...

TAL AFAR, Iraq (Army News Service, Dec. 29, 2005) — In a ribbon cutting ceremony today, Tal Afar Police Chief Gen. Fawaz Mahmoud Issa officially opened the new Al Salam Police Station in Tal Afar. The event marked a milestone for Tal Afar’s Police Department as part of efforts to restore the city’s quality of life and security. Last year terrorists destroyed a police station in Tal Afar, but the opening of the new station represents a resurrection of the police force according to city officials. “We’re very thankful for the Coalition Forces for their support in building this police...

Iraqis in former rebel stronghold now cheer American soldiers By Oliver Poole in Tal Afar (Filed: 19/12/2005) In the low-slung concrete buildings of Tal Afar, a city built on dirty sand and mud, George W Bush sees the potential for military success in Iraq. In recent weeks it has been one case study the American president has consistently cited in order to buttress the rhetoric that the insurgency, and the killing, can be ended. Tal Afar was the site of the largest military operation of 2005, when 8,000 US and Iraqi troops reclaimed it from armed groups. It has since...

  For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryOctober 1, 2005 President's Radio Address            Audio      THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week I met with the generals who are overseeing our efforts in Iraq -- Generals Abizaid and Casey -- to discuss our strategy for victory. They updated me on the operations in Baghdad last weekend in which Iraqi and coalition forces tracked down and killed the second most wanted al Qaeda leader in Iraq. This brutal killer was a top lieutenant of the terrorist Zarqawi. He was also one of the terrorists responsible for the recent wave of attacks...

BAGHDAD (Army News Service, Sept. 23, 2005) — The newest addition to the Army’s artillery arsenal was successfully fired this month during Operation Restoring Rights in Tal Afar, Iraq, and Operation Sayaid in Iraq’s Al Anbar Province. The Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System destroyed two insurgent strongholds from a distance of more than 50 kilometers away. Battery B, 3rd Battalion, 13th Field Artillery Regiment fired eight guided rockets in Tal Afar Sept. 9 and 10, killing 48 insurgents, said Maj. Jeremy McGuire, deputy of operations, Force Field Artillery, Multi-National Corps – Iraq. Battery A, 3-13 FAR fired another six rockets...

Release A050918c BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition forces conducted raids on high-level al-Qaida in Iraq safe houses in the city of Tall Afar Sept. 18, killing numerous terrorists and capturing four. Upon entering the first safe house, Coalition forces were engaged by terrorists employing small arms; Coalition forces returned fire, killing four terrorists and detaining four. Alerted by the firefight, terrorists from a second safe house opened fire on the Coalition forces. After securing the first target, Coalition forces then turned their attention to the second safe house, where they killed two more terrorists. Coalition forces called in close air support...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2005 – The commander of coalition troops in Iraq today described "an extremely successful tactical operation" in which U.S. and Iraqi troops all but cleared Tal Afar, Iraq, of foreign fighters. Tal Afar is one of two major transit zones for foreign fighters coming into Iraq, Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., commander of Multinational Force Iraq, said from Baghdad today. The other route is through the Euphrates River Valley, farther south. U.S. troops from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and Iraqi forces from the 3rd Iraqi Army Division have been working for two months to plan...

Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough in today’s Washington Times provide the perspective of Army Colonel H.R. McMaster, who is leading the campaign in Iraq to retake the border town of Tal Afar, on the Islamo-fascists he is confronting: Col. McMaster appeared in the Pentagon this week via a video hookup to describe how his 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, joined by 3rd Iraqi Army Division, routed most of the extremists. But it was his description of how the enemy occupied their safe haven that got the most attention. Col. McMaster told of beheadings, gunshot killings, a booby-trapped dead child and kidnappings....

U.S. troops find chemical weapon in Tal Afar stronghold U.S. commander derides enemy’s ‘unscrupulous’ actions ARLINGTON, Va. — While taking down the insurgent stronghold of Tal Afar, U.S. troops discovered a crude chemical weapon, the commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment said Tuesday. The troops had just entered a building when their ears and throats started to burn, said Army Col. H.R. McMaster in a briefing to reporters. U.S. forces determined insurgents had rigged the chemicals to explosives, McMaster said, though he did not identify the type of chemical. “We evacuated the civilians from the area and we demolished...

...There are good reasons to believe the current operation in Tal Afar -- a largely Turkoman city near the Syrian border -- will be a model of things to come. Previous attempts to clean the terrorists out of Tal Afar and other cities in northern and western Iraq have too often seen the insurgents melt away only to return when the U.S. spearhead withdrew. This time Iraqis are leading the fight and, most important, many will stay so the people of Tal Afar can begin to believe they can live free of terrorist intimidation. As of last night, a force...

TAL AFAR, Iraq -- US and Iraqi forces on Tuesday carried out a house-to-house search for insurgents in the northern town of Tal Afar after rebels melted away in the face of a large-scale operation, the US military said. "The enemy no longer enjoys any kind of safe haven in the city ... or control of any part of [it], and is running from our forces," said Colonel H.B McMaster, commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. "They have abandoned their positions, trying to save themselves by hiding in houses and communities," he said, adding that troops were conducting house-to-house...

IRAQI troops had guerrillas on the run in the town of Tal Afar yesterday but the fight was not over in a big military offensive in which more than 200 insurgents have been killed, a senior US officer said. At a news conference with US President George W. Bush in Washington, President Jalal Talabani said that Iraq would not set a timetable for a US troop pullout, backing away from published comments that up to 50,000 could be withdrawn by the year-end. Iraqi troops, supported by U.S. forces, have taken the lead in the Tal Afar offensive against Sunni Muslim...

CAMP SYKES, Iraq (Army News Service, Sept. 13, 2005) – Scores of insurgents were reportedly killed, detained or fled from the town of Tal Afar Sept. 11 as Coalition forces launched an offensive into the city, located about 30 miles west of Mosul in northern Iraq. Now reconstruction and re-establishment of infrastructure in the city has been turned over to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment’s 401st Civil Affairs Battalion. The civil affairs Soldiers have already been working on short-term projects in Tal Afar, including school refurbishments, supplying food, road repair, fixing electrical problems, digging wells for drinking water and starting...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Army News Service, Sept. 13, 2005) – At least 119 suspected terrorists have been detained since Sept. 10 by Iraqi security forces and Coalition troops in northern Iraq as they continue operations to purge insurgents from the city of Tal Afar, about 30 miles west of Mosul. In a cordon and search Sept. 10, Coalition forces detained 41 individuals suspected of terrorist activity, officials said. Security forces also seized a mortar system with multiple rounds of ammunition and a cache consisting of hundreds of rounds of ammunition. “Operation Restoring Rights is being conducted to remove terrorists and foreign...

As the US and Iraqi forces continue their week long occupation in Tel Afer, an al-Qaeda linked organization has threatened for a chemical attack if the operation is not ended within 24 hours. An Internet notice from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi from the Iraqi division of al-Qaeda and other organizations like Ansar al-Sunnah said, “If the Tel Afer operation does not end in 24 hours, Ceyh al-Taif al-Mansura military office has decided to organize attacks towards important and strategic targets of the occupation and Iraqi forces using chemical weapons developed by the Mujaheeden.” Zarqawi condemned the occupation in Tel Afer and...

What's different about the Tal-Afar operation is that the Iraqi government is taking the lead. Iraq's prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, announced the start of the offensive in a statement yesterday morning. "At 2am today, acting on my orders, Iraqi forces commenced an operation to remove all remaining terrorist elements from the city of Tel Afar," he said. "These forces are operating with support from the Multinational Force." Tal-Afar, the area in which the operation is taking place, is located just east of the Sinjar Mountains (Jabal Sinjar), a prominent ridge along the Syrian border, and southwest of the mountainous border...

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Iraqi militant group has offered up to $100,000 for killing the prime minister and top officials who launched an offensive on rebels in a northern town, according to an Internet statement posted on Monday. The Islamic Army in Iraq, among several insurgent groups fighting U.S. troops and Iraqi forces, said Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and the defense and interior ministers should die for the fighting in Tal Afar. "The leadership of the army has issued orders to all the mujahideen to intensify their attacks... to avenge the mass extermination occuring in Tal Afar," said the statement...

TAL AFAR, Iraq - Fighting eased on the second day of a sweep through Tal Afar - a militant stronghold near the Syrian border - as insurgents melted into the countryside, many escaping through a tunnel network they dug under the ancient city in the north of Iraq. Iraqi and US military officials vowed to expand the offensive. The 8,500-strong Iraqi-US force continued house-to-house searches on Sunday, and military leaders said the assault would push all along the Syrian frontier and in the Euphrates River valley. Cities and towns along the fabled river are bastions of the insurgency, a collection...

TAL AFAR, Iraq -- An audiotape posted on the Internet urges insurgent fighters in Iraq to prepare for a "final" battle. The recording is attributed to the al-Qaida leader in Iraq, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi claims insurgents have inflicted casualties on allied troops in the Tal Afar battle.

Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said 48 insurgents were captured so far, along with mortar launchers and communications gear. He said Iraqi forces had suffered two wounded and no deaths. Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi said he expected the offense to last three days, and bitterly complained that Iraq's Arab neighbors had not done enough to stop the flow of foreign fighters. "I'm regret to say that instead of sending medicines to us, our Arab brothers are sending terrorists," al-Dulaimi told the news conference. In the past two days, he said 141 "terrorists" had been killed and 197 wounded. Five government soldiers...

September 11, 2005 -- TAL AFAR, Iraq — More than 5,000 Iraqi army and paramilitary troops backed by U.S. soldiers swept into this al Qaeda stronghold near the Syrian border yesterday, conducting house-to-house searches and battering down stone walls in the narrow, winding streets of the old city. Last night, Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari ordered the Rabiyah border crossing closed in an attempt to stanch the flow of terrorist fighters from Syria, about 60 miles from Tal Afar.

DUBAI (AFP) - An Al-Qaeda linked Sunni group in Iraq threatened to use chemical weapons against "occupation" and Iraqi forces unless they halt their offensive against rebels in the northern town of Tal Afar. "The military bureau of Jaish al-Taefa al-Mansura (Army of the Victorious Community) has decided to strike strategic and sensitive targets belonging to the (US) forces of occupation and apostates (Iraqi government forces) in Baghdad, with non-conventional and chemical weapons" unless the Tal Afar operation is called off, the Internet statement said Sunday. The Internet statement, whose authenticity could not be verified, said weapons "developed by the...

A voice recording attributed to Al-Qaeda's Iraq frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and posted on the internet Sunday accused the US military of using chemical weapons in its assault on rebels in the northern town of Tal Afar. "O nation of Islam, your enemies are using more destructive weapons including poison gas against the inhabitants of Tal Afar," the voice said. Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari gave the go-ahead Friday for an all-out assault on Tal Afar by some 4,000 US and around 6,000 Iraqi troops after days of deadly clashes failed to dislodge insurgents from the town. The Iraqi Red...