Iraq deploys hundreds of soldiers at base near Mosul

PanARMENIAN.Net - Hundreds of Iraqi soldiers have arrived at a northern base over the past 24 hours to prepare for operations to retake the city of Mosul from jihadists, officers said Friday, February 12, according to AFP.

AFP correspondents at the base in Makhmur, around 70 kilometres southeast of Mosul, saw 700 soldiers from the 15th division arrive late Thursday.

More soldiers were deployed there on Friday, said an officer who is part of the security command tasked with retaking Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital, from the Islamic State group (IS).

A ceremony was held to mark their deployment in Makhmur, which is within territory controlled by Iraq's autonomous Kurdish government, AFP says.

Iraqi officers have said the plan was to increase the number of federal Iraqi forces in Makhmur to 4,500, AFP says.

The Iraqi military set up a radio station called "As-Sanduq" at the base in Makhmur to keep residents informed of military developments in the area.

"This station is a way of communicating with the people of Nineveh and broadcasting the army's voice," said Sergeant Salem Mahmud, who is in charge of operating it.

"It is intended to reassure the people, to tell them that they will be liberated from Daesh," he said, using an Arab acronym for IS.