Major General Abu Waleed, the commander of the Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF) in Tal Afar, announced that the military forces and nomads have full control over the city and reports on the withdrawal of Iraqi forces are "baseless."
“Troops who are with me, have not retreated even an iota from Tal Afar and what is said in this regard (withdrawal), are only rumors spread by Iraq’s enemies and are aimed at waging psychological warfare,” the commander added.
Meantime, a security source in the Nineveh Province has said that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group has destroyed all mosques in Tal Afar, al-Masalah news website reported.
Iraq has been witnessing a new wave of violence fueled by the ISIL Takfiri terrorists. The militants have been operating in the Iraqi provinces of Nineveh, Diyala, Salahuddin and al-Anbar.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said that the country’s security forces would confront the terrorists, calling the seizure of Mosul a “conspiracy.” The Iraqi prime minister has also blamed Saudi Arabia and Qatar for the security crisis and growing terrorism in his country, denouncing Riyadh as a major supporter of global terrorism.