Battle to retake Mosul from ISIS has begun

The battle has been launched to retake control of the Iraqi city of Mosul from Islamic State and convoys of Iraqi and Kurdish forces were moving towards the east of the city. Simultaneously, the US-led coalition airstrikes are extending aerial support.
The bid to regain control of the city of Mosul is seen as the biggest military operation in Iraq since American troops left in 2011.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 17 October 2016.

It is estimated that nearly 2,000 Iraqi special forces are in action with support of four brigades of the regular Iraqi Army, 15,000 Sunni militia, 15,000 Kurdish Peshmerga and a few thousand Shia militia. Their objective is to take the fight to an estimated 3,000 IS fighters in the city and snipers will be sent in first to fight street-by-street.
There are genuine fears that Mosul will be rigged with explosives. Moreover, the fear of chemical weapons cannot be ruled out. Islamic State does have the capability and it is quite possible that they have been saving the weapons for 'D-Day'. Mosul is the last city in Iraq that is still held by IS.
The UN has cautioned that up to one million people could be displaced from Mosul during the operation. The families are at "extreme risk" of not only being caught in crossfire, but tens of thousands may end up besieged or held as human shields and thousands could be forcibly expelled.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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