ERBIL (Iraqi Kurdistan) (Sputnik) – According to the Iraqi army command, "millions of leaflets" were dropped on Mosul, Hawija and Qaim, a town on the border with Syria, to tell civilians about the "victories of the Iraqi army and the last hours of the Islamic State on Iraq’s territory."
Earlier in the day, the Iraqi armed forces and anti-terrorist units launched an offensive against the positions of Daesh terror group, outlawed in Russia, in several districts of Mosul simultaneously.
Mosul, the second biggest Iraqi city, as well as a number of other northern and western Iraqi cities and towns were seized in 2014 during an IS offensive.
Iraqi forces backed by the US-led coalition against the Daesh launched the operation to reclaim Mosul from the extremist group, outlawed in Russia and the United States among others, on October 17.