BAGHDAD/ERBIL (Dispatches) -- Iraqi security forces launched an offensive to take back the city of Tal Afar on Sunday, their next objective in the campaign to defeat Daesh militants, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said.
"You either surrender, or die," Abadi said in a televised speech announcing the offensive, addressing the Takfiri terrorists.
A longtime stronghold of Daesh, Tal Afar, 50 miles (80 km) west of Mosul in Iraq's far north, experienced cycles of violence after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, and it has produced some of Daesh’s most senior commanders.
The city was cut off from the rest of Daesh-held territory in June. It is surrounded by Iraqi government troops and Hashd al-Sha’abi volunteers in the south, and Kurdish fighters in the north.
Hours before Abadi's announcement, the Iraqi air force dropped leaflets over the city advising the population to take precautions. "Prepare yourself, the battle is imminent and the victory is coming, God willing," the leaflets read.
About 2,000 battle-hardened Takfiri militants remain in Tal Afar, according to Iraqi military commanders.
They are expected to put up a tough fight, even though intelligence from inside the city indicates they have been exhausted by months of combat, aerial bombardments, and by the lack of fresh supplies.
"Intelligence gathered shows clearly that the remaining fighters are mainly foreign and Arab nationals with their families and that means they will fight until the last breath," Colonel Kareem al-Lami, from the Iraqi army's 9th Division, told Reuters.
Daesh’s "caliphate", proclaimed in swathes of northern and western Iraq taken in a shock 2014 offensive, in effect collapsed last month when Iraqi forces recaptured the group’s capital in Iraq, the major city of Mosul, after a nine-month campaign.
But parts of Iraq and Syria remain under Daesh control, including Tal Afar, a city with a pre-war population of about 200,000.
The main forces taking part in the offensive are the Iraqi army, air force, Federal Police and the elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), who began encircling the city on Sunday.
The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) or Hashd al-Sha’abi confirmed they are also taking part in the battle. Five villages surrounding Tal Afar were retaken by Iraqi forces and the PMF on the first day of the offensive.
Commanders say Tal Afar's complicated geography, with ridge lines around city that could provide shooting positions for Daesh terrorists, will heighten the need for overhead imagery.
The capture of Tal Afar would represent another major victory for Iraq.
Commanders said Tal Afar's wide streets would allow tanks and armored vehicles easy passage. Only one part of Tal Afar, Sarai, is comparable to Mosul's Old City, where Iraqi troops were forced to advance on foot through narrow streets in a battle that resulted in the near total destruction of the historic district.
Preserving the lives of civilians during the campaign remains a priority, Iraqi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool told al-Iraqiya TV on Sunday.
Waves of civilians have fled the city and surrounding villages under cover of darkness over the past weeks, although several thousand are estimated to remain, threatened with death by the militants who have held a tight grip there since 2014.
"Thousands of people are fleeing Tal Afar for safety," said Lise Grande, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, adding that families are "arriving exhausted and dehydrated".
Residents who left Tal Afar last week told Reuters the Takfiri militants themselves looked exhausted.
"(Daesh terrorists) have been using tunnels to move from place to place to avoid airstrikes," said 60-year-old Haj Mahmoud, a retired teacher. "Their faces looked desperate and broken."
The United Nations International Organization for Migration estimates that between 10,000 to 40,000 people are left in Tal Afar and surrounding villages.