Daesh has sent trucks loaded with explosives careening toward the front lines and fired mortars to slow the Iraqi forces’ advance. Lt. Gen. Talib Shaghati told reporters at a military base that up to 6,000 Daesh fighters are inside the city. Daesh captured Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, in a lightning advance in the summer of 2014. The wide-scale operation to take Mosul back from Daesh militants is entering its third day, and the Iraqi military is calling on the extremists to surrender. The chief of the Russian military’s General Staff said it has been monitoring the Mosul operation and is concerned that militants might escape to Syria.

Source: thestar October 19, 2016 19:28 UTC