Peshmerga unit commander Hüseyin Yezdanpana told Sputnik Turkiye that the Kurdish Peshmerga forces are now mostly concentrated on the eastern frontline in the Hazır region.
"The top priority of the operation in the Hazır region is to liberate the neighboring Kurdish settlements from Daesh militants. Then there will be an assault on Mosul," he said.
"Peshmerga fighters won't participate in the fighting in the center of Mosul," he added.
"The jets of the US-led coalition are conducting massive airstrikes on the positions of the jihadists in Hazır, Bashiqa and south of Mosul," he said.
The commander added that the scale of the Mosul offensive will be expanded in the nearest future and new frontlines will be opened.
The General Command of Peshmerga has announced that the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi army launched an offensive on the Daesh terrorist-occupied northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Monday at about 03:00 GMT.
The command said that up to 4,000 Kurdish fighters were deployed to take part in the operation, in accordance with an agreement between Iraqi Kurdistan and the government of Iraq.
On Sunday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi announced the start of the military operation to retake Mosul from the Islamic State militants. According to local media, about 30,000 Iraqi soldiers are taking part in the operation.
