The Kurdish "peshmerga" carried for years the heaviest burden of the fight against the IS with practically no military support. However, they advanced boldly and steadily from the North and Northeast on Mosul, while the Iraqi army is taking months to recapture Mosul with a very scant allied military support. The current situation of prolonged war results from the hasty and announced withdrawal of coalition troops prematurely initiated in 2011 when total victory against islamist forces was already in sight. 
Jan. 12.─ Iraqui and Western coalition commanders had promised a rapid victory in Mosul when they launched an offensive to retake the city from Islamic State (IS) in October. But the battle for Iraq’s second city has lasted three months, and Iraq’s prime minister says it will continue for at least as long again.
IS fighters initially put up stronger resistance than expected. After stalling in December, Iraq’s army has made rapid gains in the eastern half of the city over the past ten days. IS leaders have retreated to the west, blowing up the remaining bridges over the Tigris river as they left. But as the Iraqi army consolidates its hold on Mosul’s east, the siege of the west will intensify. A fresh assault across the river is not planned until early March. What is the scene on the ground—and how are the 1.1m civilians left in the divided city coping?
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