Iraq has opened a front in Western Mosul in an attempt to combat ISIS. The ISIS forces have been fighting the counterterrorist group for seventeen months now, leaving hundreds of thousands of civilians on an “urban battlefield.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/04/world/middleeast/iraqi-forces-west-mosul-isis.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fworld&action=click&contentCollection=world®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0
