The United Nations on Sunday warned that thousands of civilians are expected to flee the town of Tal Afar and surrounding areas, as the Iraqi security forces began offensive to dislodge Islamic State (IS) militants from their last stronghold in Iraq's northern province of Nineveh.
"Thousands of people are fleeing Tal Afar for safety. Families are trekking for 10 to 20 hours in extreme heat to reach mustering points. They are arriving exhausted and dehydrated," the Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Lise Grande, said in a statement.
Grande described the situation inside Tal Afar as "very tough," because food and water are running out, and people lack the basic necessities to survive, according to the statement by the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
"More than 30,000 people have already fled the district. We don't know how many civilians are still in the areas where fighting is occurring, but we are preparing for thousands more to flee in coming days and weeks," said Grande.
She expressed deep concerns about the "extreme risks that families are facing," calling on all parties of the conflict "to avoid civilian casualties and ensure people have the assistance they are entitled to under international humanitarian law."
The statement came hours after the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the start of an operation to retake control of the northern town Tal Afar from IS militants.
"We announce the launch of an operation to liberate Tal Afar. I say to Daesh (IS militants) -- either you surrender or die," Abadi said in a televised speech.
Tal Afar, some 70 km west of Mosul, is the last IS redoubt in the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh. Up to 350,000 to 400,000 people used to live in the town and surrounding areas, including 250,000 people in Tal Afar itself. But most of them left their homes either due to the sectarian strife during the years after 2003, or after the town fell to the IS in 2014.
The majority population of Tal Afar area are Sunni and Shiite Turkomans, in addition to the minority of Kurds and other minorities.
The United Nation's International Organization for Migration estimates that some 10,000 to 40,000 people are still living in the town of Tal Afar and surrounding areas.
Earlier, the army's Major General Najim al-Jubouri, commander of Nineveh's Operations Command, told reporters that he estimated there were between 1,500 and 2,000 IS militants left in Tal Afar.

Source: XINHUA