In Iraq, ‘all the pieces’ are now in place to take Mosul back from the Islamic State
By Dan Lamothe October 7
Fighters from predominantly Sunni Arab forces take part in an Oct. 6 training session in Bashiqa, Iraq, before the upcoming battle to recapture the city of Mosul REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
The U.S.-led coalition fighting against the Islamic State has prepared “all the pieces” it needs to take back the Iraqi city of Mosul, and expects military operations there are “rapidly approaching,” a senior State Department official said Friday.
Brett McGurk, the State Department’s envoy to the coalition, said the mission to take back the city of more than 1 million people will be “a very unpredictable, very dynamic, very uncertain operation.” It will be the most ambitious and complex operation the Iraqi government has undertaken against the Islamic State since it roared across the country in 2014, and include approximately 30,000 Iraqi forces.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/10/07/in-iraq-all-the-pieces-are-now-in-place-to-take-mosul-back-from-the-islamic-state/
