Iraqi ground forces began an assault on the town of Tal Afar, Prime Minister Haider al Abadi announced on state television, one of the last territories in the country controlled by Daesh militants, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. 

Tal Afar, though much smaller than Mosul, is also expected to be a tough battle, Iraqi officials estimate that some 1,000 Daesh militants remain in the town and will fight to the death, with little opportunity for escape. 

“I say to Daesh, you have no choice but to surrender or die,” Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Adabi said in a pre-dawn televised address. 

The town, about 37 miles east of the Syrian border, has both strategic and administrative significance to Daesh as it was one of the first stations in Iraq for foreign fighters pouring into the country from Syria.

It was also the home town of a number of the Iraqi Daesh's senior figures as shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Tal Afar was one of the first places in the country to suffer a deadly wave of sectarian killings, and hosted an active Al Qaeda insurgency.

The battle for Tal Afar will be closely watched by regional powers, given its strategic location near the border with both Syria and Turkey, the newspaper pointed. 

Adabi was vague on the role the militias, which fall under nominal state authority, saying Sunday that Iraq’s military, counterterrorism forces and federal police would lead the fight, backed by the militias.

Source: MENA