MOSCOW (Sputnik) – A source in the Iraqi security forces told Sputnik that US and Iraqi armed forces prepare for the military operation aimed at liberating the city.
Peshmerga Ministry’s spokesman Halgurd Hikmat told Sputnik that the offensive would start “very soon,” maybe on Sunday.
Kurdish Peshmerga Commander Omer Huseyin told the Anadolu news agency that US howitzers deployed about 13 miles from the Mosul’s city center opened fire on Saturday.
He also said that US-led coalition jets carried out airstrikes on the Daesh positions.
"The Daesh terrorists started burning tires to block the view of the warplanes after international coalition forces struck the area. Daesh terrorists also started burning the petroleum filled in their ditches, which they have dug around the city," Huseyin added.
Mosul, the second biggest Iraqi city, as well as a number of other northern and western Iraqi cities and towns was seized in 2014 during an offensive of the Daesh extremists, outlawed in Russia.
