The battle for Mosul was a huge military operation to recapture Iraq's second largest city from so-called Islamic State (IS). Mosul fell to IS in June 2014, with IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaiming the creation of a "caliphate" from its ancient and now destroyed Great Mosque of al-Nuri. Thousands of Iraqi soldiers, Kurdish fighters, Sunni Arab tribesmen and Shia militiamen, assisted by US-l