By Robert Presser on October 24, 2016
After months of threatening to move against ISIL in Mosul, 25,000 Iraqi army and Kurd militia fighters are slowly closing in, supported by US and coalition airpower and advisors. Two years ago, Mosul collapsed as Iraqi forces fled the city when faced with a confident and insurgent ISIL force that had seized vast territories in Iraq and Syria and established Raqqa and the capital of the “Greater Syria” originally promised to the Arab armies by Lawrence of Arabia. Two years later, Mosul is the last major Iraqi city in ISIL control and their expulsion will leave only Raqqa as their urban stronghold. It will be a long, tough battle, brutal for the remaining 1 million civilians in the city, half of its pre-conflict population. It may take longer and produce more casualties than expected for the Iraqis and Kurds, but after the victory who’s going to get the spoils?
