As difficult as it will be to drive Islamic State from its last major stronghold in Iraq, there is little doubt that the militants in Mosul will be defeated. The question is whether they will be back one day. – Los Angeles Times
Iran has positioned thousands of loyal Iraqi Shiite militia fighters around Mosul with a strategic goal of creating long-lasting armies inside Iraq that can also deploy as an expeditionary force to Syria, Yemen and other contested regions, analysts say. – Washington Times
Iraqi troops fighting Islamic State militants in the eastern outskirts of Mosul regrouped on Monday in neighborhoods they recently retook from the extremist group, conducting house-to-house searches and looking for would-be suicide car bombs, a top Iraqi commander said. – Associated Press
Since July, the Islamic State’s defenders in Mosul have been busily turning the group’s Iraqi capital into a fortress in preparation for the onslaught they knew would come. Now, newly published satellite images reveal just how elaborate those efforts have been. – Washington Post’s Checkpoint
It’s the most important battle in the war against the self-proclaimed Islamic State to date: the fight to retake Mosul, the terror group’s Iraqi capital. But so far, the U.S. military does not know how many ISIS fighters have been taken prisoner, a senior defense official explained to The Daily Beast. – The Daily Beast
Josh Rogin reports: In its first full day back in session, the Republican-led House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill to sanction the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as well as its Russian and Iranian enablers, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The move puts pressure on President-elect Donald Trump to decide whether saving Syrian civilians and standing up to mass atrocities — as opposed to partnering with Russian President Vladimir Putin — are things he believes in. – Washington Post
Editorial: Again, the Syrian regime is not fighting the Islamic State in Aleppo. It is bombing and besieging its own citizens, with Russian and Iranian help. In refusing to allow aid deliveries and in targeting hospitals, it is willfully committing crimes against humanity. “I don’t think anybody wants a quarter of a million people to be starving in east Aleppo,” said Jan Egeland, the head of a U.N.-backed humanitarian task force. Tragically, he is wrong. The Assad regime and Mr. Putin want it. Mr. Obama is unwilling to prevent it. And Mr. Trump is, at best, indifferent. – Washington Post