Thursday, Apr 25, 2024 | Last Update : 10:04 PM IST
Iraq set to make bid to retake Mosul from ISIS
Hundreds of Iraqi soldiers have arrived at a northern base over the past 24 hours to prepare for operations to retake the city of Mosul from jihadists, officers said Friday.
Hundreds of Iraqi soldiers have arrived at a northern base over the past 24 hours to prepare for operations to retake the city of Mosul from jihadists, officers said Friday.
AFP correspondents at the base in Makhmur, around 70 kilometres southeast of Mosul, saw 700 soldiers from the 15th division arrive late Thursday.
More soldiers were deployed there on Friday, said an officer who is part of the security command tasked with retaking Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital, from the ISIS.
A ceremony was held to mark their deployment in Makhmur, which is within territory controlled by Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish government.
Iraqi officers have said the plan was to increase the number of federal Iraqi forces in Makhmur to 4,500.
The government retook Ramadi over the past weeks and efforts to reconquer more land from ISIS are now expected to focus on Mosul, the jihadists’ main hub in Iraq.
An assault would involve a variety of different Iraqi forces.
