ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The deputy governor of Mosul warned it would be harder to recapture Iraq’s second-largest city from the Islamic State (ISIS) the longer the operation is delayed.
“The sooner the operation begins, the better,” Nuraddin Kaplan said. “The more time that passes, the harder it will become” to regain control of the fallen city, he added.
ISIS has been in control of Mosul, together with a third of Iraq, since capturing the city from the Iraqi Army in June.
US-led coalition forces, together with the government in Baghdad and Kurdish Peshmerga forces fighting against ISIS, are determined to beat back ISIS and recapture Mosul.
But some US military officials have indicated that will not happen anytime soon, and that some 80,000 skilled Iraqi Army troops – in addition to US forces on the ground – would be needed to liberate the city.
“The operation will start with the assistance of Coalition air strikes” on ISIS positions inside Mosul, Kaplan said. “Peshmerga forces will participate in the operation to control Mosul,” he added.
Meanwhile, ISIS militants launched an offensive against the Peshmerga in the town of Rabia on the Syrian border, a Kurdish security source said.
The Kurdish forces recaptured Rabia, an important post on the border with Syria, in September. The crossing is strategically important because it can be used by the jihadists to ferry fighters back and forth between Iraq and Syria.
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