The Fight For Mosul, Underway For A Month, Is Only Just Beginning
The Iraqi soldiers posing for photos next to a pile of captured ISIS weaponry — mortar shells, tanks, even a tunnel-boring machine — are battle-hardened. They have been fighting ISIS all over the country since 2014, when about a third of Iraq fell to the extremists. Speaking at a little base in northern Iraq, they […]The Iraqi soldiers posing for photos next to a pile of captured ISIS weaponry — mortar shells, tanks, even a tunnel-boring machine — are battle-hardened. They have been fighting ISIS all over the country since 2014, when about a third of Iraq fell to the extremists.
Speaking at a little base in northern Iraq, they say the fight for ISIS' largest stronghold, Mosul, is different.
"In Anbar, there was just us and them," said Cpl. Qusay al-Jubouri, referring to the province west of Baghdad where the ISIS-held cities were deserted by civilians during battles earlier this year and last year. "We knew everyone inside the city was an enemy — in any house, we could attack them. But here, the problem is all the civilians stay in their houses."
