Iraqi forces inch closer to Mosul

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has pledged to recapture Mosul, the ultra-hard-line group’s de facto Iraqi capital and the largest city anywhere in its self-proclaimed caliphate, by the end of 2016, more than two years after it fell to the jihadists. 

Recent gains against the militants have brought that target into focus, though critics still question whether the military is ready and what might happen to the city if Islamic State is ousted. More than 33,000 people have fled south from Shirqat town over the past two months.