(CNN)The offensive to liberate Mosul from ISIS control has begun, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a televised statement early Monday.
"Our dearest people in Nineveh province, the victory bell has rung, and the operations to liberate Mosul have begun," he said. "I am announcing today the beginning of these heroic operations to liberate you from the brutality and terrorism of ISIS. God willing, we will meet soon on the ground of Mosul where we will all celebrate the liberation and your freedom."
Mosul awaits assault on ISIS
The 30,000-strong force tasked with recapturing the largest city under the terrorist group's control comprises many groups, with the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga making up the bulk. Iraqi security forces are expected to lead the ground campaign with the backing of coalition airstrikes and advisers, US officials have said.Once Abadi announced the offensive had begun, Brett McGurk, the US State Department's special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIS, acknowledged in a tweet the operation aimed to end "two years of darkness under (ISIS) terrorists." "Godspeed to the heroic Iraqi forces, Kurdish #Peshmerga, and #Ninewa volunteers. We are proud to stand with you in this historic operation,' he wrote in a second tweet. The US recently announced the deployment of 600 additional troops to aid in the city's
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capture. The deployment brings the number of US personnel to more than 5,200, the Pentagon says. "There are no major objectives after that," Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said. "This is it. This is the last big holdout in Iraq for (ISIS)." Before becoming the top prize in the Iraqi portion of the militant group's self-declared caliphate, Mosul was inhabited by more than 2 million people. About 1 million residents remain today -- in the clutches of an organization known to use civilians as shields.
Potential humanitarian disaster The UN refugee agency says most of the remaining residents could flee once the fighting is underway, creating what a UN representative says could be "one of the largest man-made displacement crises of recent times."
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