“Our well trained and armed units are currently deployed in Mahmur [southeast of Mosul] and are ready to launch an operation to liberate Mosul,” Maj. Gen. Najim al-Jubouri, the top military commander in Nineveh province, told the agency on Friday.
He added that the region’s military authorities were acting in close coordination with the popular forces and appreciated their help in the ongoing fight against the terrorists.
Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi earlier promised to liberate the strategic city in 2016 in what he said would be a game-changer in the war on terror.
Daesh, outlawed in Russia and many other countries, is a violent extremist group that has seized large areas in Syria and Iraq and declared a caliphate on territories under its control.
