The operation to
retake the town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, from the Islamic State group
began Sunday morning, Iraq's prime minister said.
Tal
Afar and the surrounding area is one of the last pockets of IS-held
territory in Iraq after victory was declared in July in Mosul, the
country's second-largest city. The town, about 150 kilometers (93 miles)
east of the Syrian border, sits along a major road that was once a key
IS supply route.
"The city of Tal Afar will be
liberated and will join all the liberated cities," Prime Minister
Haider al-Abad said in an address to the nation broadcast on state
television early Sunday.
"My message to (IS):
you (have) no option, you either surrender or die," he continued. "We
prevailed in all battles against (IS), while (IS) faced death and defeat
in all their battles."
Iraq's mostly Shiite
militiamen largely stayed out of the operation to retake Mosul, a mostly
Sunni city about 80 kilometers (50 miles) to the east, but have vowed
to play a bigger role in the battle for Tal Afar, which was home to both
Sunni and Shiite Turkmen before it fell to IS, a Sunni extremist group.
The militias captured Tal Afar's airport, on the outskirts of the town,
last year.
Their participation in the coming
offensive could heighten sectarian and regional tensions. The town's
ethnic Turkmen community maintained close ties to neighboring Turkey.
Turkish officials have expressed concern that once territory is
liberated from IS, Iraqi Kurdish or Shiite forces may push out Sunni
Arabs or ethnic Turkmen.
A stepped up campaign
of airstrikes and a troop buildup has already forced tens of thousands
to flee Tal Afar, threatening to compound a humanitarian crisis sparked
by the Mosul operation.
Some 49,000 people
have fled the Tal Afar district since April, according to the United
Nations. Nearly a million people remain displaced by the nine-month
campaign to retake Mosul.
