Iraqi troops came close to Mosul

The troops of the counter -terrorist service of Iraq and the Shiite militia to him, after a two -week offensive, approached the south close to the eastern outskirts of Mosul - the largest city captured by the Islamic State. It is reported by Reuters. Simultaneously from the north to the city, the detachments of the Kurdish army of Peshmerg advanced.

Government forces prepared for the attack on the industrial zone of Gogjali, located 1 kilometer beyond the line of Mosul. The attack should be made later on Monday.

Thus, the operation of the liberation of the left -bank part of Mosul, located on the eastern shore of the Tiger, will begin.

According to the security forces, this will be the largest military operation in the country since 2003, when the West with its invasion of Irak overthrew the dictator Saddam Hussein. Fighting can drag on for weeks, if not for months, the military is warned.

Mosul is four to five times higher than the population of any of the other large cities controlled by IS. Now the population of the city is estimated at 1.5 million people.

It was after the capture of the Mosul that the leader of the Islamic state of Iraq and Levant "Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his group by the World Caliphate. He made such a statement in a large mosque in the city on June 29, 2014.

The return of Mosul under the control of the Iraq government, the agency notes, will mean the actual loss of the caliphate of its Iraqi half.

Meanwhile, the locals and observers of the UN report that Islamists use the tactics of scorched land. They set fire to oil wells to hide their movements, and also take hostages of civilians and use them as a live shield. IG militants have taken with them thousands of residents of the surrounding villages.

The Prime Minister of Iraq Haidar al-Abadi announced the beginning of the Mosul Liberation operation on October 17 . A week later, on the 23rd, it was reported that government troops entrenched 5 kilometers from the city .