... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, Iraq earlier this week to free the city from Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
s’ (IS) two-year reign.
On Thursday, the forces have further advanced and the Iraqi army too is moving from south to join the offensive.
Following the joint operation, residents are not the only ones to escape the city. Reports suggest that top ISIS leaders too have fled the last stronghold of the group in Iraq.
But the remaining ISIS forces of Evil (up to 5,000) are putting up strong resistance to 94,000 coalition forces, reports suggest.
There were also reports of suicide kabooms and attacks that killed several coalition fighters on the way to Mosul with some reports further suggesting that civilians were used by the forces of Evil as human shields. However,
denial ain't just a river in Egypt...
U.S. officials say the battle can take months but it would be a key step to oust the terror group.
U.S. Army General Gary Volesky, commander of Operation Inherent Resolve's ground forces, said, "Make no doubt the Iraqi security forces have the momentum. Coalition forces must continue to apply unrelenting pressure on the enemy and then the enemy's going to break. There are fewer snuffies today than there were yesterday; there will be less tomorrow than there are today."
Volesky also expects the terror group to intensify their attacks that can include chemical attacks. "I expect that they're going to go into an insurgency mode and they'll try to do these high-profile, spectacular attacks to draw attention away from the losses that they're suffering," he said.
"What I can report to you is that it is on track with the plan. In some areas, we are right where we expected to be and in other areas we are a little bit ahead of where we expected to be," said U.S. Army General Joseph L Votel, U.S. Central Command chief.
But the situation is more miserable for the residents. Up to 1.5 million civilians are still expected to be in Mosul.
According to the British charity, ’Save the Children’ at least 5,000 people from the conflict zone have fled to a refugee camp near the Syrian border and at least 1,000 more are waiting at the border. The UN expects at least 200,000 people to flee Mosul and take shelters in the refugee camps. In order to make prior arrangements, camps are being built in the south, east and north of Mosul.
In the U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has accused democratic nominee
Hillary Clinton... sometimes described as
Deplorable, Irredeemableand at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another Edmund Randolph...
yet again claiming that the Mosul-offensive strike by Iraqi joint forces are to promote Clinton’s election campaign.
"The only reason we did it is because she's running for the office of president. They want to look tough, they want to look good," Trump said on the Iraqi advance in Mosul that is backed by U.S. advisors and air crafts.
Clinton in reply said, "I'm just amazed that he seems to think that the Iraqi government and our allies and everybody else launched the attack on Mosul to help me in this election, but that's how Donald thinks. You know, he always is looking for some conspiracy."