国际英语资讯:Spotlight: Iraqs operation to liberate Mosul receives international support amid humanitari_时事

国际英语资讯:Spotlight: Iraqs operation to liberate Mosul receives international support amid humanitari

Iraqi security forces on Monday launched a major offensive aimed at liberating the city of Mosul, the last major stronghold of Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq.

Mosul, which is located some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, has been under the group's control since June 2014, when Iraqi government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions.

The joint forces of the Iraqi army, Peshmerga forces and allied paramilitary Sunni and Shiite Hashd Shaabi units, backed by the international and Iraqi air cover, have successfully recaptured nine villages from IS militants.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the offensive early Monday, saying that "the time of victory has come, and the moment of the great victory is approaching."

The offensive was supported by the United States with more than 100 U.S. troops embedded in Iraqi and Kurdish forces to provide artillery support, intelligence, logistics and other support, according to the U.S. Defense Ministry.

"This will be a key milestone in what I committed to doing when IS first emerged, which is we were going to roll them back and we are going to ultimately drive them out of population centers and we will destroy them and defeat them," said the U.S. President Barack Obama.

Turkey, which has been locked in a row with Iraq about the presence of its troops at the Bashiqa camp in northern Iraq, joined airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition during the operation.