Islamic State claims attack on Tal Afar in northern Iraq

Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack in the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar, the group said on its news agency Amaq on Tuesday. The attack on Tal Afar, a former IS stronghold, killed two people and wounded 11, Reuters reported, citing the Iraqi military. Tal Afar is about 80km west of Mosul. The city experienced cycles of sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and produced some of IS’s most senior commanders. The city with about 200,000 residents came under the militants’ control when IS overran swathes of Iraq’s north in 2014.