The advance on Mosul
▻http://www.businessinsider.com/5-maps-explaining-the-battle-for-mosul-2016-11/#the-advance-on-mosul-1
This map reveals three points about the coalition to retake Mosul. First, it shows how far Iraqi Security Forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters have advanced. In the first few days, these fighters advanced quickly. But they met stiffer Islamic State resistance roughly 10 to 25 miles outside the city. The coalition forces are still advancing, but their progress—especially approaching from the south—has been slowed a great deal.
Second, the map shows how far these forces still have to go to reach the city. The battle will not begin in earnest until they do.
Third, the map gives a sense of the anti-IS coalition’s strategy. Although there have been reports of Shiite militias heading west to cut off potential IS retreating points, those are unconfirmed at present, and the militias certainly don’t include the bulk of Iraq’s best fighters. The coalition hopes that IS fighters will retreat from their positions and melt back into the desert, fleeing to their strongholds in Syria or becoming easy targets for airstrikes. IS is not likely to retreat—if it was going to, it would have done so already.
