After a month and a half of making virtually no territorial gains, Iraq made much of a new military offensive in Mosul over the past week, pushing into the city’s northwest in what they claimed would be a major gain. ISIS, as usual, is offering a lot more resistance than they expected.
Iraqi military officials were so confident the push was going to be a sweeping victory that they issued a statement, out of Baghdad of course, claiming the new district was totally captured on Saturday. That wasn’t the case, however, and reporters say there is still heavy fighting in the area.
Just the latest in a series of offensives that were supposed to mean outright victory within a few weeks and which have failed to do so. After eight months of this, however, living in Mosul is starting to get a lot more difficult,, with food shortages in both the Iraqi-held areas and the ISIS-held areas.
Nowhere, however, is the food in shorter supply than in the areas being contested between the two. Locals are increasingly holed up in the remaining buildings, unable to flee, and subsequently unable to go around to the shops to try to forage for what little supply is left to be had.