WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Several thousand Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have begun clearance operations near three villages southeast of Iraqi Mosul to prepare for the city’s liberation from Daesh, Operation Inherent Resolve spokesperson Col. Christopher Garver said in a briefing on Tuesday.
"These operations seek to secure additional ground lines of communication, which will provide multiple routes for forces and logistics supporting eventual Mosul liberation operations and to limit freedom of mobility by Daesh," Garver told reporters.
Daesh has controlled Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul for the past two years. Last month, the United Nations warned that the military operation to retake the city could displace 3.4 million people and cause a humanitarian crisis.
Daesh is outlawed in Russia and numerous other countries.
