[5] 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) southwest of the town of Tal Afar are the mounds of Yarim Tepe which yielded remains from the Halafian culture of the Hassuna, Halaf and Ubaid periods, between 7000 and 4500 BC.

The English traveller, archaeologist, and future diplomat Austen Henry Layard—one day to become the United Kingdom's Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire—wrote in his book 1867 book Nineveh and Its Remains: Tel Afer was once a town of some importance; it is mentioned by the early Arab geographers, and may perhaps be identified with the Telassar of Isaiah, referred to, as it is, in connection with Gozan and Haran.

Great wealth is said to have been discovered in the place, on its pillage by Mohammed Pasha, who took all the gold and silver, and distributed the remainder of the spoil amongst his soldiers.

[8]Nelida Fuccaro wrote "After Hafiz Pasha's expedition in 1837 Tall 'Afar was occupied permanently by Ottoman troops and started to be used as a base to control the movements of a number of the Yazidi tribes of Sinjar.

[12] In September 2005, Operation Restoring Rights was conducted in which approximately 5,000 soldiers from the 3rd Division of the Iraqi Security Force in conjunction with 3,500 troops (Bob Woodward sites the number 5,300 troops in his book "The War Within") from the U.S. Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division entered the city.

[14] Abu Musab al-Zarqawi accused the American military of using "poisonous gases" on Tal Afar in an audiotape received and posted on an Islamic website.

The United States denied using chemical weapons in Tal Afar saying such reports were propaganda created by al-Zarqawi, and were false and without merit.

[15] The operation tested a new strategy of "clear, hold, build", in which areas would be purged of insurgents and then occupied and then rebuilt to win support from local people before being handed over to the Iraqi security forces.

[16] In March 2006, U.S. President George W. Bush pointed to Tal Afar as a success story, where one could "see the outlines of the Iraq we've been fighting for".

McMaster, commander of the operation became an advisor to General David Petraeus in the planning and execution of the 2007 troop surge.

With no readily available movement to replace Saddam's Baathists, the collapse of the state disrupting everything from food to security and increasing distrust towards the Shia dominated Iraqi government, tensions started to arise.

[citation needed] On February 10, 2007, a suicide car bomber killed one Iraqi soldier and wounded five people, including three civilians, as it targeted an army checkpoint.

The explosion, for which a terrorist group linked to ISI claimed responsibility, led to reprisal shootings by Shiite policemen and others against Sunnis, in which between 47 and 70 men were killed.

[27] On May 21, 2007, a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol, wounding three policemen on the main road between the town of Sinjar and Tal Afar.

In a separate incident a roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol killed an officer and wounded another soldier in Tal Afar.

[37] On September 24, 2007, a suicide truck bomb killed at least six people, including two policemen and a soldier, and wounded 17 in an attack on a checkpoint near a village between Tal Afar and Mosul.

After a police officer guarding a mosque prevented a bomber from entering the building, the attacker tried to throw a hand grenade and then detonated the explosive vest he was wearing.

[45] On February 20, 2008, a suicide car bomber killed a woman and a six-year-old girl, and wounded eight, in an attack on an identity cards office.

[47] On May 27, 2008, four people were killed and 46 wounded, including two children, when a parked car bomb blew up in a market, the town's mayor, Najim Abdullah, said.

[52] On August 8, 2008, a lone Sunni Turkman suicide bomber (initial reports said a parked car) exploded in a vegetable market killing 25 people and injuring about 70.

[66] On October 16, 2009, a gunman opened fire and then detonated a suicide belt, killing 15 and injuring 100 during Friday Prayer inside the Taqua Mosque, which is attended primarily by Sunni Muslims.

[67] On 14 May 2010, an attacker detonated explosives hidden inside a vehicle at the entrance to the football stadium, killing ten people and injuring 120 others.

The city of Tal Afar is organized into eighteen neighborhoods or districts: Sa'ad, Qadisiyah, Todd A-O, Sara, Mohalemeen, Madlomin, Uruba, Wahada, Nida, A'a lot, Hassan Qoi, Mothana, Khadra, Jazeera, Taliha, Kifah, Malain and Qalah (Turkish: Kale).

The layout of the town consists of densely packed buildings, often constructed so closely to each other that they share common load-bearing walls and supports.

The city's streets further physically define each neighborhood by separating it from other groups of buildings, since they cut through the town in irregular patterns.

The United States Army and local government implemented a home address system to better identify specific locations and define jurisdiction for the Iraqi Police in the second half of the 2000s.