Joint Iraqi forces liberate more districts in Mosul

The Iraqi security forces shelled, Thursday, ISIS's sites in ancient city in Mosul, while the joint forces liberated two districts in the city.

This came at the time that US officials told Reuters that President Donald Trump's administration is weighing a deployment of up to 1,000 American soldiers to Kuwait to serve as a reserve force in the fight against Islamic State as U.S.-backed fighters accelerate the offensive in Syria and Iraq.

Proponents of the option, which has not been previously reported, said it would provide U.S. commanders on the ground greater flexibility to quickly respond to unforeseen opportunities and challenges on the battlefield.

It would also represent a step away from standard practices under President Barack Obama's administration by leaving the ultimate decision on whether to deploy some of those Kuwait-based reserve forces in Syria or Iraq to local commanders. "This is about providing options," said one U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

U.S. and Iraqi officials believe the leader of Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has left operational commanders behind with diehard followers to fight the battle of Mosul, and is now hiding out in the desert, focussing mainly on his own survival.

It is impossible to confirm the whereabouts of the Islamic State "caliph", who declared himself the ruler of all Muslims from Mosul’s Great Mosque after his forces swept through northern Iraq in 2014.

Sources confirmed that Baghdadi was no longer in Mosul, but now moves across the Iraqi-Syrian border in some of the largely lawless areas where the group retains control in both countries.

Commander of Operations, Lt. Gn. Abdel Amir Yarallah, said in a press statement, that forces of Counter-Terrorism Service managed to liberate two districts, and raised Iraqi flag over the buildings of the two neighborhoods.

Security sources in the city of Mosul, said that the people of the liberated villages in the right coast in Mosul celebrated the victory of the security forces on the elements of ISIS. It is noteworthy that the security forces managed, in the last few days, to liberate the government complex in the center of the city, leaving many casualties and material losses in ISIS.