This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-37674693
The article has changed 16 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Battle for Mosul: Bid to retake Iraqi city from IS 'begins' | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A military operation to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul from so-called Islamic State (IS) has begun, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says. | A military operation to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul from so-called Islamic State (IS) has begun, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says. |
| An offensive to retake the city, Iraq's second largest, has been planned for months. | An offensive to retake the city, Iraq's second largest, has been planned for months. |
| Mosul has been under IS control since June 2014. | Mosul has been under IS control since June 2014. |
| The UN has warned that the humanitarian impact could be "enormous", and possibly affect up to 1.2 million people living in and around the city. | The UN has warned that the humanitarian impact could be "enormous", and possibly affect up to 1.2 million people living in and around the city. |
| The assault from Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi government forces is backed by the US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq. | |
| Mosul is the group's last major stronghold in Iraq. The loss of the city, officials say, would mark the effective defeat of IS in the country. | |
| "The time of victory has come and operations to liberate Mosul have started," Mr Abadi said in an address broadcast on state television. | |
| "Today I declare the start of these victorious operations to free you from the violence and terrorism of Daesh," he said, using another name for IS. | |
| It was from Mosul that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate - a state governed in accordance with Islamic law - in territory controlled by the group in Iraq and Syria. | |
| There are no firm figures on how many people remain in Mosul, but there were more than two million when IS took the city in June 2014. | |
| Thousands of leaflets were dropped on the city warning that the operation was imminent. |