ERBIL, Kurdistan Region –
Iraqi and coalition warplanes have dropped new leaflets over Mosul, warning residents to keep away from Islamic State positions and installations, signaling intensified air raids over the largest Iraqi city in ISIS hands.
A well-placed source inside Mosul said that leaflets dropped on Monday and Tuesday over Mosul also provided telephone numbers and emails where residents could report ISIS gatherings, which coalition warplanes have targeted in Iraq and Syria.
Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, was captured by ISIS in June, together with a third of the country.
This is not the first time such leaflets have been dropped over Mosul.
However, there has been speculation about the timing of an expected offensive on Mosul by Iraqi and coalition forces to push out the militants.
Pentagon officials in the United States have said that a force of some 80,000 competent Iraqi troops would be needed to liberate Mosul.
Last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar Abadi said in Cairo that rebuilding his country’s failed army could take three years, adding that did not mean that the fight with ISIS would take that long.
The Iraqi army, trained and equipped at massive cost by the United States, gave up without a fight when ISIS militants stormed Mosul.
Last November, Abadi dismissed 26 military commanders and retired 10 others in an anti-corruption drive.
