The Hashd Shaabi shiite militia said that they completed preparations to move in the direction of Tel Afar, a Daesh stronghold west of Mosul, from their positions in Qayyara, south of the city.
“A few days or hours separate us from the launch of operations there,” spokesman Ahmed Al-Asadi told state TV.
In Tel Afar, currently, more than 100,000 Turkmen are residing; therefore, Turkey says it is crucial to stop Hashd Shaabi from entering the town.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoğlu said on Wednesday his country, which has troops deployed north of Mosul inside Iraqi territory, will take measures if there is an attack on Tel Afar.
Turkey fears the use of Shia militias in the U.S.-backed offensive on Mosul will lead to sectarian violence in the mainly Sunni region and cause an exodus of refugees.
Earlier announcements by the Hashd Al-Shaabi or Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) that they will be involved in the offensive on Mosul, Daesh's last major stronghold in Iraq, triggered warnings from human rights groups of sectarian violence in the mainly Sunni province.
The PMF officially reports to the Shia-led government of Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi who formalized the PMF as an official arm of the Iraqi Security Forces earlier this year.
Al-Abadi announced on October 17 the start of the offensive on Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, with the backing of a U.S.-led coalition.
Amnesty International says that in previous campaigns, Shia militias have committed “serious human rights violations, including war crimes” against civilians fleeing Daesh-held territory.
The UN in July said it had a list of more than 640 Sunni Muslim men and boys reportedly abducted by Shia militias in Fallujah, and about 50 others who were summarily executed or tortured to death.
The government and the PMF say a limited number of violations had occurred and were investigated, but they deny abuses were widespread and systematic. No results of these investigations have ever been released, which is something the Human Rights Watch criticized last summer.
