Daesh fighters are swept from 12 Iraqi villages in the first day of the Mosul operation
As many as 12 Iraqi villages have been cleared from Daesh terrorists by the Mosul operation which is being conducted with the participation of Iraqi soldiers, U.S. soldiers, Turkish-trained fighters and Peshmerga forces.
The Iraqi army, Shiite militias, Kurdish regional government forces and the Nineveh Guard are advancing north to Mosul from Qayyarah town simultaneously. Mosul would be surrounded from the south, east and north.
In mid-2014, the Daesh terrorist group captured the northern city of Mosul and overran vast swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq.
Recent months have seen the army, backed by a 60-nation air coalition led by the U.S., retake much territory. Nevertheless, the terrorist group remains in control of several parts of the country, including Mosul.
