MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Daesh commanders are fleeing the Iraqi city of Mosul with their families to the Syrian territory amid an army campaign to liberate the Nineveh province from the terrorists, Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled Obeidi said Sunday.
"A large number of IS [Daesh] officers and the families sold their property and headed toward Syria, while some attempted to enter the region [of Iraqi Kurdistan]," the minister told the Al Iraqiya television channel.
Obeidi added that he had received such information from his own sources and from intelligence agencies.
Iraqi forces supported by Kurdish Peshmerga militia are carrying out operations in the ancient city of Nineveh in preparation for an assault on Mosul, which is set to be carried out with the aerial support from the US-led international coalition.
