Battle against IS in Mosul could be long: US military

NYT
LONDON
Although the Iraqi military on Friday began leafleting areas of western Mosul still controlled by the Islamic State, warning people to evacuate because an offensive was imminent, the US military is not predicting a speedy resolution to the battle for the city.
Speaking at a news conference in London, Colonel Ryan S Dillon, the US coalition spokesman for Iraq and Syria, would not predict a timeline for the Iraqi military, supported by American advisers and air power, to finally oust the extremists."I am confident they will retake Mosul," he said."This is inevitable. It will happen." Islamic State militants overran the city of more than 1 million, as well as other large stretches of the country, over just a few days in June 2014. More than two years later, in October 2016, Iraqi forces trained and advised by Americans and other coalition countries began an offensive to retake the city. Iraqi officials predicted success within a few months, but Islamic State fighters have managed to hold onto important parts of the city's west side, including its historic center. Dillon declined to predict whether the Iraqis would retake the city within a year of the start of their offensive.
"They will liberate Mosul ” it's just a matter of time when that's going to happen ” but I'm not going to put a timeline on that for them," he said.
Dillon recently took over as spokesman for the anti-Islamic State operations by the US military, based in Baghdad. He was on a visit to London on Friday.
Dillon said the going had been slow in Mosul because of efforts to minimise civilian casualties, and because of the Islamic State's determination to use human shields, booby traps and suicide bombers.
"West Mosul is arguably the most complex and dangerous combat urban environment that any force has seen in decades," he said.
The Islamic State's force in the city has been reduced to only a couple of hundred, while estimates of the civilian population remaining are 250,000 to 550,000 people, he said. Territory held by the insurgents in the city has been reduced to about 4 square miles, Dillon said.