Mosul offensive

Some 3,000 Iraqi forces trained by Turkey at the Bashiqa camp in northern Iraq are taking part in the U.S.-led operation to retake Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş said on Oct. 17.

Iraqi forces have launched a campaign to retake Mosul, the self-declared capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the prime minister said on Oct. 17 in what the US hailed as a "decisive moment" in the battle to crush the jihadist group.

The long-awaited operation to free Iraq's second city, Mosul, from the Islamic State (IS) extremist organization has begun, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says.

"Dear people of Iraq, beloved people of Nineveh province, the hour of victory has come and operations to liberate Mosul have begun," DPA quotes Al-Abadi as saying in a televised address.

The U.S. military deployed to the east of Iraq's Mosul has started shelling Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets as part of an operation to retake the city, a Peshmerga commander said on Oct. 15, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar is visiting the U.S. on Oct. 14 in order to participate at a meeting of the anti-Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) coalition, according to military sources. 

The top commanders of the anti-ISIL coalition forces last convened six months ago.

The United States is acting as a mediator to ease the tension between Turkey and Iraq, which erupted due to the presence of Turkish troops in northern Iraq ahead of a possible operation to take Mosul back from jihadists, a high-ranking U.S. State Department official has said. 

Any offensive on Mosul intimately concerns Ankara as any mistake could lead to thousands of people fleeing their homeland, harm the struggle against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and raise new complications in the fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), presidential spokesperson İbrahim Kalın has said. 

The Mosul operation has started, while a symbolic opening kickoff will be conducted in the coming days.  I will try to convey the parameters of the Mosul operation, within the context of its effects on Turkey. Mosul has been in the hands of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) since June 2014. 

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants attacked Turkish troops in the Bashiqa military camp in northern Iraq with artillery fire and an unmanned drone on Oct. 9.
Turkish howitzers responded to the attack with fire and destroyed ISIL targets, while the drone was downed with a Stringer rocket.

Ankara is ready to provide "all kinds of support" in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in a planned Mosul operation, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu vowed on Oct. 7, in response to a question on whether Turkey has proposed that its troops stationed in northern Iraq can take part in the offensive.