Mosul offensive

The US military denied May 3 a report that strikes led by Washington had killed at least 52 civilians in northern Syria earlier this week, saying those killed were actually fighters.

Arrests have been made in connection with a terrorism investigation into youth who have traveled or tried to travel to Syria to fight with militants, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, federal authorities said April 19.

A car bombing claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) killed three people on April 17 outside the U.S. consulate in Erbil, in a relatively rare attack in the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
  

Turkish officers are participating in the training of 800 Sunni and Turkmen fighters in a camp located in al-Shikhan district 12 kilometers north of Mosul in northern Iraq.

The fighters receive military techniques including defusing explosive devices, a commander told Anadolu Agency on April 14.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has lost control of "25 to 30" percent of the territory it holds in Iraq after coalition air strikes and an Iraqi offensive, the Pentagon said April 13.

Iraq?s prime minister will seek President Barack Obama?s help to acquire billions of dollars in drones and other U.S. arms to fight Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during a U.S. visit next week, a senior Iraqi official said. 

Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the Baghdad government would work with Kurdish authorities to liberate the northern province of Nineveh from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants. 

The Peshmerga forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq have started training Christian militia to fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) around Mosul, Anadolu Agency reported on March 11.

The commander of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. Lloyd J. Austin, will pay a visit to Ankara on March 11 ahead of a military operation in Mosul against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

During his visit to Iraq on March 4, Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Y?lmaz said Turkey is ready to give all kinds of "intelligence and logistical support" to the neighboring country's government in the fight against terrorism.