Kurdish forces regained control over some 200 square kilometers (77 square miles) of territory in the first day of an offensive to drive the Islamic State group from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the group's last major stronghold in the country, Kurdish Regional President Massoud Barzani said on Monday. The Mosul offensive, one of the biggest military operations in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, was launched early on Monday by Iraqi government forces, with air and ground support from the U.S.-led coalition. Following the advance, Kurdish forces are expected to break temporarily as the Iraqi military presses forward. The advance by some 30,000 Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Sunni tribal fighters comes two years after the jihadis seized the city of 1.5 million people. In June 2014, speaking from Mosul's Grand Mosque, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a "caliphate" in Iraq and neighboring Syria. About 4,000 to 8,000 Islamic State fighters are thought to remain in the city. The Iraqi Kurdish military command said 4,000 Peshmerga were helping to clear several villages held by Islamic State to the east of Mosul, in coordination with a push by Iraqi army units from the southern front. "Up to now 200 square kilometers have been liberated. This is the first phase of the Mosul operation. It has started from the east and from the southeast of Mosul, and it is a joint operation between the Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi army," Barzani told reporters in the town of Khazar, a few miles from the front lines. Barzani said he hoped the cooperation between the Kurdish forces and the Iraqi government forces would reflect positively on future relations between the region and the central government. Islamic State has been retreating since the end of last year in Iraq, where it is battling U.S.-backed Iraqi government and Kurdish forces as well as Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite militias. Still, as Iraqi government forces launched the offensive on Monday, Islamic State news agency Amaq released a video it said showed the group fighting back. The video, Amaq said, showed Islamic State fighters destroying an Iraqi army tank with a missile. Amaq on Monday also uploaded images it said showed al-Hurriya Bridge -- one of the main crossing points of the Tigris River in Mosul and a key supply line for Islamic State -- partially destroyed. Witnesses said the bridge had been hit by an airstrike on Sunday, which Islamic State said had been carried out by U.S. warplanes. The Pentagon said Iraqi forces were meeting objectives and were ahead of schedule on the first day of the offensive. Residents contacted by phone dismissed reports on Arabic television channels of an exodus by the jihadis, who have a history of using human shields and have threatened to unleash chemical weapons. "Daesh [Islamic State] are using motorcycles for their patrols to evade air detection, with pillion passengers using binoculars to check out buildings and streets," said one resident, Abu Maher. He and others contacted said they were preparing makeshift defenses and had been stockpiling food in anticipation of the assault, which officials say could take weeks or even months. The United States predicted that Islamic State would suffer "a lasting defeat" in the operation. But the offensive, which has assumed considerable importance for U.S. President Barack Obama as his term draws to a close, is fraught with risks. These include sectarian conflict between Mosul's mainly Sunni population and advancing Shiite forces, and the potential that up to a million people will flee Mosul, multiplying the refugee crisis in the region and across Europe. "We set up a fortified room in the house by putting sandbags to block the only window, and we removed everything dangerous or flammable," Abu Maher said. "I spent almost all my money on buying food, baby milk, and anything we might need." Lise Grande, the United Nations' humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, said the military had told the U.N. it expected the first significant population movement to begin in five to six days, suggesting that is when the assault would move to the city itself. She added that Iraqi security forces would transport fleeing civilians, who would be vetted to ensure Islamic State fighters could not hide among them, following residents' reports that militants had shaved off their beards to escape detection. Video showing rockets and bursts of tracer bullets across the night sky and loud bursts of gunfire was shown on Qatar-based Al Jazeera television after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi announced what he called "the heroic operations to free you from the terror and oppression of Daesh." "We will meet soon on the ground in Mosul to celebrate liberation and your salvation," Abadi said in a speech on state television in the middle of the night, surrounded by commanders of the armed forces. The commander of the coalition, U.S. Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, said the operation to take Iraq's second largest city would likely continue for weeks, "possibly longer." The Pentagon played down any new role for U.S. forces in the battle, saying American personnel were behind the forward line of troops and acting in an advisory role to support Iraqis. "Americans are again playing an advisory role, an enabler role for these Iraqi forces. ... Most of the American forces in Iraq are not anywhere close to the front line," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told a news briefing, saying many U.S. troops were on advisory or logistical support missions. If Mosul falls, Raqqa in Syria will be Islamic State's last city stronghold. "This is a decisive moment in the campaign to deliver ISIL [Islamic State] a lasting defeat," U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in a statement. "We are confident our Iraqi partners will prevail against our common enemy and free Mosul and the rest of Iraq from ISIL's hatred and brutality." However, in a blow to the anti-Islamic State campaign, last week the jihadis crushed a planned rebellion in Mosul intended to ease the recapture of the city. A young Kurdish fighter in battle dress scanned the plain east of Mosul from his position on Mount Zertik, and said: "We are the real Muslims. Daesh are not Muslims; no religion does what they did." As he spoke a Humvee drove by with the word Rojava, or Syria's Kurdistan, painted on the machine gun turret. "This is all Kurdistan," said Maj. Shiban Saleh, one of the fighters onboard. "When we're done here, we will chase them to Raqqa or wherever they go." He said about 450 Syrian Peshmerga fighters were involved in the offensive, which aimed to take back nine villages on Monday. Abdul Rahman Waggaa, a member of the exiled Provincial Council of Nineveh of which Mosul is the capital, told Reuters the advancing forces had yet to enter the city: "Activities are still outside of Mosul, and the operation is not at full strength yet." Early on Monday, Abadi sought to allay fears that the operation would provoke sectarian bloodletting, saying that only the Iraqi army and police would be allowed to enter the mainly Sunni city. He asked Mosul's residents to cooperate with them. Local Sunni politicians and regional Sunni-majority states including Turkey and Saudi Arabia warned that if Shiite militias take part in the assault they could spark sectarian violence. The Iraqi army dropped tens of thousands of leaflets on Mosul before dawn on Sunday, warning residents the offensive was imminent, assuring them it would "not target civilians," and telling them to avoid known locations of Islamic State fighters. Reflecting authorities' concerns over a mass exodus that would complicate the offensive and worsen the humanitarian situation, the leaflets told residents "to stay at home and not to believe rumors spread by Daesh" that could cause panic. Resident Abu Abdullah said he had wanted to witness the beginning of the offensive. "We heard repeated explosions at a distance, so I went to the rooftop to see fireballs, even if it was dangerous. I was happy that the operation to liberate Mosul has started," he said. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin, criticized over the level of civilian casualties during Syrian government operations backed by Moscow in and around the city of Aleppo, said on Sunday he hoped the United States and its allies would do their best to avoid hitting civilians in the attack on Mosul. The United Nations has said the battle would require the world's biggest and most complex humanitarian effort, which could leave up to 1 million people homeless and see civilians used as human shields or even gassed. Already more than 3 million people have been displaced in Iraq as a result of conflicts involving Islamic State, and up to 100,000 Iraqis may flee Mosul to Syria and Turkey. Medicine is in short supply in Mosul, and food prices have risen sharply. "Families in Mosul started stockpiling food yesterday in case the fighting reaches our streets and we can no longer go out," said Saeed, a resident. "Daesh are still in Mosul, and it's not true that they left. They are continuing to erect blast walls in the streets to obstruct any advance."
