YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK (Sputnik) — On October 17, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi announced the start of the military operation to retake Mosul from Daesh. According to local media, about 30,000 Iraqi soldiers and 4,000 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are taking part in the operation, backed by artillery and airstrikes carried out by the US-led international coalition.
"Whatever is behind this [operation], if victory is reached, and that will be a very important victory over Daesh, it can only be a good thing," Peskov said to "Vesti v Subbotu" news program when commenting on the possibility that the operation in Iraq was related to the upcoming presidential election in the United States.
Although contacts between Russia and the United States are now limited and Washington is not willing to cooperate, some channels for information exchange remain open, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“Contacts with the Americans are limited. But, despite the refusal of our US partners to cooperate further, some channels for information exchange remain open. As for the Iraqi prime minister, the talks had been held upon the Iraqi initiative. Moreover, there are many parallels between the situations around Mosul and around Aleppo now,” he said, answering a question why Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to discuss the Mosul operation with the Iraqi prime minister, not the US President Barack Obama.
