Objective: Mosul

With the Islamic State (ISIS) having lost more than 40 percent of its territory in Iraq since its height of control in January 2015, all attention has turned to ousting the group from its stronghold in Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced in a televised statement on Sunday that the campaign has officially begun and several groups, including the Iraqi army, U.S. Special Forces, Kurdish Peshmerga, Shia militias, and Sunni tribal groups, have joined to formulate a coordinated assault on the city.

“There is a great deal of work left to do, and we will not put a timeline on the Mosul operation,” stated Brett McGurk, Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL at a July testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “But with momentum now on our side, it is safer to say that ISIL’s days in Mosul – where it proclaimed its phony caliphate to the world – are numbered.”