HARASSED by sniper fire and slowed down by the suicide bombers of Islamic State (IS), Kurdish and Iraqi forces have taken heavy casualties as they fight their way towards Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and the place where the jihadists first announced the creation of their “caliphate” two years ago.
Villages freshly captured by the Iraqi army and Shia militias on the roads leading to Mosul show signs of the jihadists’ hasty retreat. Weapon caches are abandoned, pots of uneaten food still sit on stoves and medical clinics have been pilfered for supplies. But there are signs, too, of the defences dug by IS to evade air strikes: deep, wide subterranean tunnels with room enough to sleep and eat, their entrances concealed inside one-storey buildings.
The operation to retake Mosul began on October 17th. Since then an awkward coalition of Iraqi and Kurdish forces has swept across the vast, sun-baked plains of Nineveh to seize a string of villages to the east, north and south. As The Economist went to press, some units were within 6km (4 miles) of the city.
Kurdish and Iraqi troops, supported...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2eeRCIT
EmoticonEmoticon