The Mosul offensive, aiming to cleanse the city of DAESH, brings to fore the question of what kind of strategy the terrorist organization is to carry out in the aftermath of losing the city.
In 2014, Mosul had fallen to DAESH as the US-financed, trained and equipped Iraqi army left the city. Afterwards, DAESH had declared its caliphate in Mosul, and in the following months, expanded its territories, removing the border between Syria and Iraq and establishing a de facto state. However, the military campaign of the international coalition against DAESH caused the terrorist organization to suffer substantial losses. Between 2014 and 2016, DAESH lost half of its territories in Iraq, and more than one fifth in Syria.
[Politics Today, November 12, 2016]
