Iraq announces the war to take the city of Mosul from Islamic State has started

Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, has been occupied by Islamic State for the past two years.

“The time of victory has come and operations to liberate Mosul have started,” Iraq Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said during a televised meeting with journalists and political analysts.

“Today I declare the start of these victorious operations to free you from the violence and terrorism of Daesh (IS).

“We started fighting ISIS in the outskirts of Baghdad, and thank God we are now fighting them in the outskirts of Mosul, and God willing the decisive battle will be soon.”

The announcement of the country’s biggest military operation since US troops left in 2001 came hours after Iraqi forces dropped leaflets over Mosul, telling residents not to panic and to seal their doors and windows.

The four-page leaflets told residents that Iraqi-led forces, supported by the US-led coalition against ISIS, were making advances on the city and that no one should panic.

Residents were urged to stay away from certain parts of the city, avoid ISIS positions, remain in their homes and seal their windows and doors. A phone number for Mosul residents to report ISIS activity was included.

“It’s victory time” blared a headline on the newspaper-style leaflets, quoting Iraq’s Prime Minister. “Time to celebrate a clean Iraq without ‘Daesh’ (ISIS) or any dark belief.”

Residents have had limited access to the outside world since Mosul fell to the terrorist group in June 2014. ISIS imposed extreme restrictions on travel in and out of the city and banned satellite dishes. It is the terrorist group’s last stronghold, the last city under its control.

“We promise you that victory is near and that it will be a great victory fitting with the greatness of Iraq and its history and its people,” Ahmed al-Assadi, a politician and spokesman for the Popular Mobilisation Units, or PMUs, which include dozens of militias fighting together, said earlier.

The US said it’s proud to stand with Iraq in the offensive to retake Mosul, the capital of Islamic State’s so-called caliphate in Iraq.

“PM Abadi issued orders to initiate major operations to liberate Mosul after two years of darkness under ISIL terrorists,” Brett McGurk, the US envoy to the coalition against Islamic State, said in a message on Twitter. “Godspeed to the heroic Iraqi forces, Kurdish Peshmerga, and Ninewa volunteers. We are proud to stand with you in this historic operation,” McGurk said.

Al-Abadi did not provide details of the military operations launched overnight but witnesses told CNN that air strikes had taken out one of the city’s main bridges, the latest move as forces warm up for the much-anticipated offensive on Mosul, a key city in the ISIS network and the militant group’s last bastion of power in Iraq.

Turkey is also determined to define its interests in northern Iraq, and has sent some 500 of its own troops to train local militias in the region. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday his country was determined to participate in the battle for Mosul. The Turkish deployment has angered the government in Baghdad, which has close ties to Turkey’s rival, Iran.

The Islamic State group has lost a quarter of its territory in Syria and Iraq since January 2015, according to a report by the IHS Conflict Monitor group, but still holds the Syrian cities of Raqqa and Deir el-Zour, as well as Mosul.

The Islamic State group seized Dabiq in August 2014, when its population was about 3,000 people. The extremist group named its English-language online magazine after the town. That same year, IS also announced that it was the burial site for American captive Peter Kassig, who took the first name Abdul-Rahman after converting to Islam during captivity.

The Britain-based Observatory said IS had sent over 1,000 fighters to defend Dabiq last week before withdrawing hurriedly. The Turkish military intervened in the Syrian war in August this year under orders from Ankara to clear the border area of IS fighters and U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces linked to Turkey’s own outlawed Kurdish insurgency. The Turkish government considers both to be terrorist groups.

Syrian opposition fighters backed by Turkish ground and air forces have since expelled IS militants from their last positions along the Syrian-Turkish frontier and are closing in on al-Bab, one of their last remaining strongholds in Syria’s contested Aleppo province.

Turkey sent thousands of opposition fighters from other regions in northern Syria to the front as part of Operation Euphrates Shield. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Sunday that after taking Dabiq the Turkish-backed groups are determined to advance on al-Bab.

Turkey’s Erdogan has suggested that some of the nearly 3 million Syrian refugees in Turkey could return to the newly-liberated areas of their country.

“They can go to their own lands, we can let them live there safely,” he said. “That’s the step we will take. We have given our proposal to coalition powers and we are moving together.”

Originally published as War to rid Mosul of ISIS begins