- Iraqi forces advance into six new neighborhoods in Mosul
As Iraqi and Kurdish military forces converge on the eastern outskirts of Mosul, U.S. commanders are concerned about their ability to launch airstrikes without laying waste to the ancient city and the civilians who live there. – Los Angeles Times
Islamic State cut off cellular service to Mosul two years ago. Now Iraqi forces trying to recapture the city are trucking in portable cellphone towers—and encouraging residents to take advantage of restored coverage to call with useful intelligence. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The brutally simple weapon that for years caused problems for U.S. troops occupying Iraq and Afghanistan is now increasingly shaping the ongoing push by Iraq’s military and other allied ground forces to retake Mosul from the Islamic State. – Washington Times
Iraqi citizens along the outskirts of Mosul are telling coalition forces of the torturous existence they lived for the past two years under the Islamic State group. – Washington Times
U.S. special operators were at the front line on the edge of Mosul earlier on Tuesday with elite Iraqi troops who were preparing to enter the Islamic State's last stronghold in the country. – Stars and Stripes
U.S.-backed Iraqi forces moved closer on Wednesday to a town south of Mosul where aid groups and regional officials say Islamic State has executed dozens of prisoners. - Reuters
Islamic State militants killed 40 former members of the Iraqi Security Forces near Mosul on Saturday and threw their bodies in the Tigris river, U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said on Tuesday, citing reports from the field. - Reuters
Islamic State documents and posters, obtained in villages captured by Iraqi forces, highlight a tight and comprehensive system of rule by the militants, who went to great lengths to explain their extremist philosophy. - Reuters
While the fight on Mosul's eastern front has moved at a brisk, steady pace since the offensive formally began Oct. 17, the ground assault to the south has been a grinding slog. – Associated Press
Turkey's defense minister said Tuesday his country is making preparations for "all kinds of possibilities" after the military began deploying tanks and other vehicles to the border with Iraq. – Associated Press
Peter Bergen interviews US CENTCOM commander General Joseph Votel: Votel…sat down with me on Thursday at a US base in the Middle East and also on his plane on Friday to discuss how that campaign is going, from the commencement of major combat operations to take back Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, from ISIS, to the incipient US operations around Raqqa, ISIS' de facto capital in Syria, to ISIS' plans to transform from a physical caliphate to a virtual one, and the continued threat posed by al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria. - CNN
Kenneth Pollack writes: The apparent decision to simply follow Abadi’s lead and leave post-liberation Mosul to the Iraqi government raises the question of whether the Obama administration is repeating the same mistake it has in the past. – Brookings Institution
Holding white flags and traveling in convoys of dump trucks, army buses and family sedans, thousands of residents poured out of eastern neighborhoods of Mosul on Thursday, the first significant wave of people to escape the city held by the Islamic State. – Washington Post
While the Islamic State’s tactics have been a hodgepodge of diversionary skirmishes and concerted counterattacks, the desert terrain outside Mosul has allowed the group — also known as ISIS and ISIL — to effectively use antitank guided missiles, or ATGMs, in its defense of the city’s approaches. Though it is hardly a new tactic on the recent battlefields in Iraq and Syria, the large offensive has produced footage of the weapons in use against U.S.-made vehicles that — in recent years — have not had to contend with them. – Washington Post
As Iraqi and Kurdish forces tighten the noose around the Islamic State-held city of Mosul, American and coalition commanders are keeping a wary eye on the city’s western flanks, where thousands of Shia majority paramilitary fighters have launched an offensive toward the city. – Washington Times
An audio recording purportedly circulated this week by reclusive Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may be proof that communications have broken down between the terrorist group’s top leaders in Syria and its rank-and-file fighters in the besieged city of Mosul, the Pentagon said Thursday, as coalition forces continued their advance on Iraq’s second-largest city. – Washington Times
The U.S. military on Thursday called the latest message from Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi a desperate bid to boost morale among militants who increasingly realize they're fighting for a losing cause. – Military.com
As Iraqi troops enter the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul this week, they have help from the sky in the form of F/A-18 Super Hornets based on the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Arabian Gulf. – DOD Buzz
Iraqi special forces recaptured six districts of eastern Mosul on Friday, a military statement said, expanding the army's foothold in the Islamic State stronghold a day after its leader told his jihadist followers there could be no retreat. - Reuters
The commander of the Iraqi special forces who are spearheading the offensive to recapture the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul said on Thursday that they had gained a foothold in the city quicker than expected. - Reuters
Iraq is not planning for U.S. military advisors to accompany Iraqi forces inside the city of Mosul, at least for now, a U.S. military spokesman said on Thursday, potentially limiting America's role in the offensive against Islamic State. - Reuters
The Kurdish women are part of a larger armed unit of some 600 fighters aligned with the Kurdistan Freedom Party, known by its Kurdish acronym PAK. This group has joined an array of Iraqi and Kurdish forces who are backed by a U.S.-led coalition in an offensive designed to push Islamic State out of their stronghold of Mosul. - Reuters
Analysis: As Iraq comes closer to ejecting the Islamic State from its last major stronghold in the country, the question is no longer whether it can succeed. The question is whether it will all have to be done again someday. – New York Times