Iraqi forces have launched a campaign to retake Mosul, the self-declared capital of the Islamic State, the Prime Minister said on Monday in what the US hailed as a "decisive moment" in the battle to crush the jihadist group.
Up to 1.5 million civilians remain in the city, the United Nations said, voicing fears the vastly outnumbered Islamists could use them as human shields as they seek to repel the assault on its last major stronghold in the country.
"Today I declare the start of these victorious operations to free you from the violence and terrorism of Daesh," Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a televised address, using an alternative name for the ISIS group.
Mosul fell to ISIS fighters two years ago as they marched through Iraq and Syria, where the civil war left a power vacuum that they easily exploited.
Its recapture would shatter the group's claim to be running a "caliphate" and would all but end its presence in Iraq as a land-holding force.
That claim received another body blow yesterday when Syrian rebels retook the town of Dabiq from the group.