© Zohra Bensemra / ReutersAn Iraqi special forces soldier checks detonation devices at a factory used by Islamic State militants to manufacture home made bombs in Bazwaia, east of Mosul, Iraq October 27, 2016.
The operation to retake Mosul began ten days ago since then Iraqi security forces and Kurdish Peshmerga forces have been conducting a village-by-village sweeps from the north, east and south heading towards the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
"They have a plan for how far they want to get each day, and they were able to get to those places faster than they anticipated that they would," US Air Force Colonel John Dorrian, spokesman for the US-led Operation Inherent Resolve, told Pentagon reporters via video conference on Friday.
For now, soldiers in the north and east are five miles away from Mosul, and ten miles away in the south. The city has an estimated 1.4 million residents.
"They are pausing and repositioning, refitting and doing some back clearing" in areas where the Iraqi forces have already made some headway, Colonel Dorrian said. "We think it will just be a couple of days and then we are back on the march toward Mosul. That's their game plan and we believe they will stick to it."
Comment: Mosul Liberation to Take Three More Months - Iraqi Kurdistan President
It will take another three months to liberate the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Daesh militants if the offensive continues progressing at the rate it is now, President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani said.
"We see that they [Daesh] have hundreds of suicide bombers, they must have factories for production of explosives. This would create great danger during the assault. If everything goes well, I expect that it will be possible to liberate the city in three months at the latest," Barzani told the Bild tabloid in an interview published late on Thursday.
According to the official, the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters will not participate in the offensive in the city itself, as they are bound by an agreement with Baghdad and the international US-led coalition.
"However, if they were to ask us and there were a new agreement, we would of course help, we are ready for this."
US Central Command head General Joseph Votel told reporters on Wednesday that nearly 1,000 Islamic State (IS formerly known as ISIS/ISIL) fighters have been killed since the operation began. The Iraqi government said 57 of its soldiers had been killed, and about 250 wounded, while the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters had about 20-30 fatalities.
Over 100,000 residents have fled Mosul since the offense began. The UN refugee agency foresees an additional 700,000 civilians fleeing the city.
"There's been quite a dramatic upturn in the last few days," said Karl Schembri of the Norwegian Refugee Council, according to AFP, adding there is only enough room in the camps for 60,000.
Dorrian said the US-led coalition has dropped more than 2,500 munitions from warplanes, artillery pieces and rocket launchers during the operation, and destroyed 46 tunnels, 33 truck and car bombs and hundreds of other vehicles and fighting positions since the offensive began on October 17.
Despite the presence of 100 US military advisers and coalition artillery and air support, the 25,000-strong Iraqi ground force has encountered determined resistance from IS. Tactics such as suicide vest and belt attacks, roadside bombs, and vehicles rigged with improvised explosive devices, are designed to halt Iraqi progress toward Mosul and as a distraction as IS fighters retreat, according to the US military.
The Pentagon has estimated there are between 3,500 and 5000 IS fighters in Mosul, and the US military expects the enemy to mount a brutal fight to keep the city they first occupied in June 2014. The operation is expected to take several more weeks and potentially months, but the US military said it is confident Iraqi forces will succeed in liberating Mosul.
"The Iraqis are quite capable of defeating [Islamic State]. They've already pushed them out of all these keys areas around Mosul," Dorrian said. "This is a short pause, and they will continue the operation as they see fit."
What is going to happen is a siege. History shows us untakable cities have fallen after 2 or 3 years of siege. The plan is for sporatic outbursts of activity followed by lulls. Psychlogically this unpredictability has the greatest effect of emotional disturbance because of not knowing the future action.
I doubt this 'war' is against any enemy but is engineered to destroy the functional of dna by stress, all the people of Iraq included. The 'winners' are going to the anyone who does not live in the contested area including all of Iraq.
Again I state this 'war' is to destroy all the competency for recovery in the entire Middle East.