ON THE ROAD TO MOSUL WITH THE PESHMERGA | Reporters - France 24 | Grandes Chaînes

A few weeks before the Iraqi and Peshmerga forces’ offensive to retake Mosul from the Islamic State jihadists our reporters in Iraq followed the final preparations for this strategic battle. We offer you an exclusive report, filmed at the end of August in the north of Iraq. Our reporters went to the Kurdish front where the Peshmerga have taken back, yard by yard, eleven villages around Mosul, the huge city in the north of Iraq and the bastion of the Islamic State organization since June 2014. They also went to Qayyarah, a town some 60 km south of Mosul, where the Iraqi army has set up its rear base and was preparing to launch the assault on Mosul. The starting gun for this operation to dislodge thousands of Islamist fighters from this major city in the north of Iraq was fired during the night of Sunday to Monday October 17. This strategic battle could last several weeks, or even months” according to the estimate from French Defense Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian. It promises to be “difficult” added American President, Barrack Obama. Our reporters were witness to the final preparations for this offensive, alongside Kurdish and Arab forces, who are rivals yet fighting together against the common enemy. Suicide bombers, booby-trapped cars, oil wells set ablaze, mine fields… As the vise tightens, the jihadists are using any means to push back the assault on Mosul and foil the American bombing.”