Up to 25,000 Iraqi troops preparing for attack on Islamic State in Mosul | World news | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/20/up-to-25000-iraqi-troops-preparing-for-attack-on-islamic-state-in-mosul
The operation to retake Iraq’s second largest city from Islamic State militants will likely begin in April or May and will involve about 12 Iraqi brigades, or between 20,000 and 25,000 troops, a senior US military official has said.
Laying out details of the expected Mosul operation for the first time, the official from US Central Command said five Iraqi Army brigades will soon go through coalition training in Iraq to prepare for the mission.
Those five would make up the core fighting force that would launch the attack, but they would be supplemented by three smaller brigades serving as reserve forces, along with three Peshmerga brigades who would contain the Islamic State fighters from the north and west.The Peshmerga are Kurdish forces from northern Iraq.
