Mosul offensive

Turkish troops will remain in Iraq to continue the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and to make sure that no change to the region's "demographic structure" is imposed, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has vowed.

Turkey and Iraq summoned their respective ambassadors on Oct. 5 amid bitter verbal exchanges regarding Turkish troops in the Bashiqa region of Mosul, as tension rises between two neighboring countries ahead of a planned operation against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). 

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Masoud Barzani, president of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, have discussed an upcoming military campaign to retake the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-held city of Mosul. 

The United States will send about 600 extra troops to Iraq to train local forces for an offensive on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) stronghold of Mosul, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Sept. 28.

Novinite is publishing an interview with H.E. Mr Kahtan Janabi about the forthcoming battle of the Iraqi government to retake Mosul, the country's second-largest city that fell to the Islamic State (IS) group in 2014.

Mr Janabi has been the Iraq's Ambassador to Bulgaria since 2015.

Iraqi forces readying to retake Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) will be using artillery batteries provided by France, France President Francois Hollande said Sept. 20, as Iraqi military closed in on Sept. 21 on the center of Shirqat, a northern town held by ISIL.

A prospective U.S.-led operation against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Mosul against has become an endless story, having been repeatedly delayed. It had been announced that the operation would start in late September. President Tayyip Erdoğan has also signaled Turkey's military involvement in the Mosul battle. 

A footage obtained by the Guardian shows the intense firefight between US special forces, Kurdish commandoes and Islamic State fighters in which a US Navy Seal was killed.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and other top officials in unannounced visits to Baghdad and Arbil on April 28 to show support for a government battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) amid political and economic crises. 

U.S. President Barack Obama said April 21 that Washington and the Arab monarchies of the Gulf were united in their commitment to defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

"We remain united in our fight to destroy [ISIL]," Obama was quoted as saying by AFP in Riyadh at the close of a Gulf Cooperation Council summit on April 21.