Subscribe 

Mosul assault in focus two years after Islamic State takeover

When Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi pledged in December that Iraq would retake Islamic State's de facto capital Mosul by the end of 2016, the target was greeted with scepticism by Western allies and officials within his own government. Less than seven months on, the Iraqi military has recaptured most major militant positions in western Anbar […]

Stephen Kalin and Phil Stewart write for Reuters:

When Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi pledged in December that Iraq would retake Islamic State's de facto capital Mosul by the end of 2016, the target was greeted with scepticism by Western allies and officials within his own government.

Less than seven months on, the Iraqi military has recaptured most major militant positions in western Anbar province and advanced toward Mosul, the largest city still under the ultra-hardline group's control across its self-proclaimed caliphate.

Last month's recapture of Falluja, followed swiftly by Qayara airbase 60 km (40 miles) south of Mosul and the announcement of a fresh deployment of U.S. forces, lent momentum to the campaign, which the administration of President Barack Obama would like to finish before January.

"Progress against Daesh (IS) has now put liberation of Mosul strongly on the agenda," the top United Nations official in Iraq said last week.

Abadi, backed by a U.S.-led military coalition, now wants to move on Mosul by October, a senior Baghdad-based diplomat and a Western official said, both declining to be identified.