Liberating Iraq: Battle for Mosul

It’s been a week since the offensive to liberate Mosul — Iraq’s second-largest city — from its two-year long grip from ISIS began, and so far, the Iraqi army has been ahead of schedule, liberating 78 villages, and killing 800 ISIS fighters as of Monday morning.

Mosul is the Islamic State’s last major Iraqi city, meaning that liberating Mosul would be akin to liberating the country itself from ISIS and destroying a key source of prestige and resources. Removing such a large territory governed by the self-proclaimed “sole legitimate Islamic government” would also hurt its claims as being not just a terrorist group, but a caliphate, or an actual state.

Although approximately 5,000 ISIS fighters in the battle for Mosul are heavily outnumbered by the 108,500 men strong coalition, ISIS has been preparing for the onslaught and is fighting back fiercely. The coalition consists of the Iraqi army, Peshmerga forces (Kurdish fighters) Paramilitaries, and around 500 US troops, and experts expect a successful offensive to last anywhere from weeks, to even months. The outcome is not in doubt, however.

ISIS has been reportedly digging trenches and tunnels to slow down coalition forces and to hide from coalition aircraft, in a fashion reminiscent of World War I tactics. ISIS is employing heavy use of explosives, planting bombs in roads and surrounding villages, making it long and dangerous to clear a single village of bombs. Many advancing Iraqi forces also reported the use of suicide attacks by the terrorist group, including the use of suicide vests, cars, and truck bombs. Most recently, ISIS has set fire to oil wells, hoping to obscure aircraft view with smoke, and blowing up sulfur deposits, spreading toxic plumes and fire across the region of Qayyara.

ISIS is not shy to break even additional human rights this conflict, with the UN High Commission for Human Rights receiving reports of women and children forced to march and later killed, their bodies being left in rivers in an attempt to spread terror, and reports of families being taken to be used as human shields, preventing civilians from escaping and rather opting to see them killed.

The battle for Mosul has just begun, and only when Mosul falls, can ISIS be considered defeated in Iraq.