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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Iraq fighters take ‘victory selfies’ at historic Tal Afar citadel

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TAL AFAR, Iraq: Seizing the city of Tal Afar district by district, Iraqi fighters would take down the IS group’s black flags and hang them upside-down as they took “victory selfies”.


But of all the areas they reclaimed, it was the historic heart of Tal Afar and its Ottoman-era citadel that was the high point.


Once an integral part of the Assyrian empire, Tal Afar’s history goes back thousands of years and the city is dominated by the citadel, which was damaged in 2014 when IS blew up some of its walls.


The citadel “is a pillar of civilisation, it’s a major historical monument for all the Iraqi and Arab people,” says Abdel Hamid al Attar, a 49-year-old fighter with the Hashed al Shaabi paramilitary units that fought alongside government forces.


Atop a hill overlooking Tal Afar, the citadel weathered the many storms of violence that have shaken Iraq, including the 2003 US invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.


After the invasion, it served as the headquarters of the municipal council and the local police.


Two years later American forces set up a base in Tel Afar and launched Operation Restoring Rights to break the hold of Al Qaeda and other insurgents in the city.


The operation was seen as a major success for the US military and was led by H R McMaster, then a colonel and now US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser.


Through it all the citadel stood intact, until IS blew up its northern and western walls in 2014, sparking condemnation from UN cultural agency Unesco.


During their three-year occupation of Tal Afar, the extremists turned the citadel into a prison where they chained men and women whose behaviour they considered “sinful”.


“When we retook the citadel we found chains and other things IS used to restrain their prisoners,” said Attar.


“I was shocked and sad when I saw the damage caused by IS,” he said.


Not far from the citadel stands Tal Afar’s grand mosque, its minaret damaged during the fighting.


— Reuters


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