The Turkish armed forces dispatched more military personnel to Silopi in Sirnak province near its border with Iraq, a few days after deploying tanks and other armored vehicles in the area. The initial deployment on the first of November coincided with an Iraqi operation to drive the Islamic State from Mosul and after Iraqi Shi’ite militias launched a related offensive to push the Sunni-Muslim jihadists out of the town of Tal Afar, near the border with Syria. The Shi’ite militias, part of the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga coalition, launched the Tal Afar offensive last Saturday.
Their goal is to cut off any option of retreat by Islamic State insurgents into neighboring Syria or any reinforcement for their defense of Mosul. The town, however, with its ethnic Turkmen population has historic and cultural ties to Turkey, prompting the Turkish show of force.