US: Battle for Iraq’s Mosul Could be a Year Away

Local Editor

The battle to retake Mosul, Iraq's largest terrorist hub, could take up to a year to plan, US President Barack Obama's envoy for the coalition against the "ISIL" group said Friday.

"I would see that Mosul will probably go as an operation within a year... The operation will kick off within a year," John Allen told reporters in Baghdad.

The northwestern city is Iraq's second largest. "ISIL" seized it on June 10 and it has since used it as a headquarters and a base from which to launch further offensives.

"It is a battle that is going to obviously demand as much planning and preparation as it possibly can," said Allen, who met Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi on Thursday.

Mosul "was the place where Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi exposed himself, the place where the difficulties of the ISF [Iraqi security forces] really began to cascade," he said.

Allen said it would take time to restructure the army and make it a force capable of winning the war against" ISIL".

He praised Abadi's plan to build a National Guard that could incorporate extremist tribal forces at the provincial level and assist the federal army.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team