A 30,000-strong Iraqi and Kurdish force has launched its offensive against an estimated 3,000 to 4,500 ISIS militants in Mosul, Rudaw reports.
The offensive to liberate Mosul from ISIL control has begun, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a televised statement. "The victory bell has rung, and the operations to liberate Mosul have begun," he said.
Mosul has been under ISIS control since 2014.
The Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces, in the first place, have to take control of several villages east of the city of Mosul.
The Chief of the General Staff of the Peshmerga forces, Jamal Iminiki, said that ISIS has a considerable force in Mosul. "Many militants who were defeated in Iraqi cities such as Ramadi, Tikrit and Baiji might be in Mosul now even though some of them might have gone to Syria,” the Mehr news agency cited Iminiki as saying.
"This is a decisive moment in the campaign to deliver ISIL a lasting defeat," the US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a statement.
"We are confident our Iraqi partners will prevail against our common enemy and free Mosul and the rest of Iraq from ISIL's hatred and brutality," Reuters cited Carter as saying.
"This operation to regain control of Iraq's second-largest city will likely continue for weeks, possibly longer," the commander of the coalition, US Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, said in a statement.
"This may prove to be a long and tough battle, but the Iraqis have prepared for it and we will stand by them,” he added.
The President of the National Strategy Institute, Mikhail Remizov, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, pointed out in the first place that the restoration of Iraqi control over Mosul will change the balance of powers for the better.
At the same time, he warned that in this case some militants may move to the territory of Syria, which would complicate the situation in the country. "It is quite expected. The situation when Russia and the United States do not act together, but rather competing with each other, may provoke some militants to join the ranks of various radical groups operating in Syria, like ISIL and other extremist groups," the expert explained.
In addition, he drew attention to the fact that now it is important for the US to demonstrate some progress in Syria. "The fact that the initiative is in Russia's hands became the political problem for them. The US does not like to see themselves in this position. If the offensive of Mosul is successful, it may be presented in the United States as the success of its presence in the region. And it can be a kind of symbolic revenge for them," Mikhail Remizov concluded.
