ISIS mural, eastern Mosul. Osie Greenway/SIPA USA/PA Images. All rights reserved.The military effort to expel ISIS from Iraq’s second city of Mosul started in mid-October 2016, with expectations that this would be completed by the end of the year. In the event, rapid progress into eastern Mosul in the first two weeks was followed by near-stalemate for two months, with the Iraqi army’s "golden division" – its 10,000-strong special-forces contingent – taking serious losses during the harsh urban fighting against an entrenched and determined enemy.
By the second week of January 2017 the army had regrouped and fought back into the city towards the river which divides it, aided by United States special-force advisors, increased air-support and American and French artillery-fire. The army now claims that the whole of eastern Mosul right up to the Tigris is subdued, although independent observers report that ISIS “left-behind” units are already harrying the support-troops deployed behind the golden division in an attempt to consolidate the attackers' position.
Iraq's military is reported to be preparing to contest the heart of ISIS control in western Mosul. But the defenders can mobilise considerable resources, indicating that the attackers may have to overcome even greater difficulties than in the earlier stages of this arduous campaign
