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Tall ‘Afar, the new AO for 2d Squadron, was a “hilly agricultural city” of about 150,000
to 200,000 people in northwestern Nineveh, measuring about 9 square kilometers. It lay
just over 60 miles east of the Syrian border, about 50 miles west of Mosul, and some 260
miles north of Baghdad. The terrain ranged from open desert and tribal villages to dense
urban environments, deep wadis, and even forests. To a very large degree, terrain dictated
the regiment’s tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP). In the desert, insurgent attacks
at ranges up to 2,000 meters allowed M3A2s, M1A2s, and aviation assets to exploit their
long-range optics and the reach of their weapons. Within Tall ‘Afar, the city’s fabric
was as varied as its population. Areas like Hai al-Wahda on the city’s west-central side
were, by Western standards, a confused arrangement of multistoried buildings, garages,
and small alleys. 6
In spite of the layout, the Mounted Riflemen found areas like the Wahda district
“moderately conducive to mounted” operations executed in conjunction with dismounted
Soldiers. But Tall ‘Afar’s east side was an altogether different matter. Places like the
older Hai al-Sarai district, which was about 400 by 800 meters in size, had been occupied
for over a millennia, and were chock full of “every possible obstacle from modern
multistory buildings to ancient houses, caves and even subterranean catacombs.” With
their narrow alleys and tall buildings, operations in neighborhoods like Sarai limited the
maneuverability of armored vehicles. No matter the neighborhood, each mission was a
mix of dismounted and mounted elements with tanks, Bradleys, and aviation providing
overwatch. Overlooking the city was an Ottoman-era castle, built atop the ruins of
previous fortresses dating to the Assyrian empire. The people of Tall ‘Afar considered it
a symbol of authority. 7
Tall ‘Afar’s ethnic and sectarian mix, while not precisely mirroring that of Iraq, was
indicative of the ethnic and confessional diversity characterizing the country. It is 90
percent Turkmen, three-quarters of whom are Sunni, the other fourth Shiite, with the
remainder of the population Arab, Kurd, and Yezedi. A large number of retired and former
noncommissioned officers and specialists with valuable military skills lived in the city. The
city lay within a “multi-ethnic belt” bordering Kurdistan, an area rife with tension, in part,
because of Sunni Arab fears of “reverse-Arabisation” proposals made by nationalist Kurds
hoping to ethnically cleanse the province. It is important to note that Tall ‘Afar straddled
routes that allowed easy access to Syria and sources of international support. 8

6 Steve Fainaru, “After Recapturing N. Iraqi City, Rebuilding Starts from Scratch,” Washington Post, 19
September 2004; George Packer, “Letter from Iraq: The Lesson of Tal Afar,” The New Yorker, vol. 86 (April
2006), 5; Simmering, 2/3 ACR Actions, 4; GlobalSecurity.org, online at <http://www.globalsecurity.org/
military/world/iraq/tall-afar.htm>, <http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/oif-restoring-rights.htm>,
accessed August 2006; Lt. Col. Paul Yingling, interview by Operational Leadership Experiences (OLE)
Project team, Combat Studies institute, digital recording, 22 September 2006, Fort leavenworth, KS [digi-
tal recording stored on CD-ROM at Combined Arms Research Library, Fort Leavenworth, KS]; Structure
of the Tall Afar Insurgency, 3d ACR File, communication from Patrick R. Jennings, 126th Military History
Detachment, Massachusetts Army National Guard, in author’s collection.
7 Simmering, 2/3 ACR Actions, 4; Lt. Col. Christopher M. Hickey, conversation with author, 26 September
2006.
8 Fainaru, “Rebuilding Starts From Scratch”; Packer, 5; Simmering, 2/3 ACR Actions, 4; GlobalSecurity.org;
Structure of the Tall Afar Insurgency, Anthony Cordesman, “New Patterns in the Iraqi Insurgency: The War