Iraq to send more troops to base near IS-held Mosul

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iraq will send additional troops to a base outside the northern Islamic State-held city of Mosul, the Associated Press reports.

Lt. Col. Mohammed al-Wagaa, an Iraqi army officer at the camp where the troops will be stationed, says they were "trained by the coalition forces near Baghdad."

Kurdish officials say the movements are in anticipation of an operation to liberate Mosul, but the U.S.-led coalition says it is too early to set a timetable for such an operation.

Iraqi officials have vowed to take Mosul back from Islamic State group this year, but past Iraqi military operations have been repeatedly delayed, AP says.

Mosul fell to IS in the summer of 2014 in a humiliating defeat for the Iraqi military.