September 08, 2017 Issue

Tal Afar, Iraq—The Iraqi army and Shiite militias battle the Islamic State group on August 26. Roughly a month after ISIS fled Mosul, the Iraqi-led coalition has taken back this city from the militants as well. Although there was still some light fighting outside of the city at press time, Iraqi soldiers celebrated by taking down ISIS flags and raising their own. Tal Afar was a major supply route connecting the militants in Iraq to their comrades in Syria, and ISIS’s quick collapse doesn’t bode well for the jihadis as Iraq continues to reconquer territory it lost just a few years ago.