Smoke billows from a village north of Tal Afar, as Iraqi forces advance during anti-ISIS operations in 2017.

:: ISIS has 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 ISIS stronghold, killed two people and wounded 11, according to the Iraqi military.

At least two people were killed and 11 wounded on Tuesday by a car bomb in the northern Iraqi city.

Tal Afar, about 80 km (50 miles) west of Mosul, experienced cycles of sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and produced some of ISIS’ most senior commanders.

The city, which had about 200,000 residents, came under the militants’ control when ISIS overran swathes of Iraq’s north in 2014.

It fell to Iraqi Security Forces, backed by the US-led coalition, in August 2017, the last area to be retaken in the north before fighting moved to the Syrian border. A heavy security presence has remained since then and the city has been mostly quiet.