BEIRUT — A major government offensive to recapture the city of Ramadi from Islamic State militants has begun, Iraq’s official media reported Tuesday.

State-run Al Iraqiya TV said “wide ranging” operations had started to “liberate” the city about 60 miles west of Baghdad.

Whether the counteroffensive had kicked off in earnest remained unclear. The state media often heralds government actions and victories that later prove to be illusory.

Iraqi forces have been massing for days outside Ramadi in preparation for an assault to retake the capital of Anbar province, which was captured last week by Islamic State fighters.

The loss of Ramadi was a major embarrassment for the government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. Iraqi forces in Humvees were seen in video images driving away from the city at full speed as the militants approached.

The Iraqi prime minister rejected recent comments from U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter that the Iraqi defenders of Ramadi had lost their will to fight. In an interview aired Monday on the BBC, al-Abadi vowed to take back Ramadi within days.

Other analysts have cautioned that the operation could take weeks or months. Urban warfare can be a challenging struggle fought street by street.

Participating in the promised offensive will be regular Iraqi forces and mainly Shiite Muslim militias. The Shiites are considered the most potent fighters on the government side. However, there is considerable concern that their large-scale deployment could inflame sectarian tensions in Anbar province, where the population is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim.

The news of the offensive on Ramadi was confirmed by Ahmad Assadi, spokesman for the Popular Mobilization Units, the formal name of the mostly Shiite militias that have aided the Iraqi government.

“The Popular Mobilization Forces, in all their different factions, are coordinating their operations with the general command of the armed forces to launch attacks and inflict the greatest losses on the enemy forces,” the spokesman said in a video broadcast of the news conference Tuesday.