Key dates in Mosul battle

— Iraqi government forces launched a major offensive to recapture Mosul from the Daesh group on October 17, 2016. October 17: Iraqi forces launch an offensive to drive Daesh out of Mosul.

November 1: The army says it has entered Mosul itself for the first time since June 2014.

November 3: Daesh chief Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi breaks a year-long silence to urge his fighters to defend Mosul to the death, and the advance of Iraqi forces begins to slow down.

November 8: Kurdish peshmerga fighters say they have reached Bashiqa, a dozen kilometres north of Mosul.

November 13: Iraq says it has recaptured Nimrud, an ancient city southeast of Mosul.

November 23: Shia-dominated paramilitary units known as Hashed Al Shaabi say they have cut Daesh supply lines between Mosul and Raqa, the self-declared militant capital 400km to the west in Syria.

December 29: Government troops end a two-week pause by launching the second phase of their offensive on east Mosul with increased coalition support and improved coordination between fighting units.

January 4: A US-led coalition spokesman indicates the number of Western advisers in the battle has doubled to around 450.

January 8: Iraqi units reach the Tigris River that divides Mosul and take up positions near one of the city’s five bridges, which have all been destroyed.

January 14: Elite forces from the Counter-Terrorism Service take control of the sprawling campus of Mosul University.

January 18: The head of special forces announces the liberation of the east bank, two days after Iraqi forces reach the iconic Nabi Yunus shrine, also known as “Jonah’s tomb” and which Daesh destroyed in 2014. Sporadic fighting continues for four more days however, and the western side of Mosul, home to the Old City and traditional militants’ bastions, is expected to offer much stiffer resistance.

January 24: The Joint Operations Command coordinating the fight against Daesh says that the east has been “fully liberated”, after pockets of IS fighters in the north are cleared.

January 24: The UN warns that 750,000 civilians in western Mosul are “at extreme risk” as Iraqi forces prepare to attack Daesh in that part of the city. In February it adds that up to a quarter of a million Iraqis could flee their homes. That figure comes on top of the 200,000 who have fled since

October 17. Close to 50,000 of them have since returned to their homes.

February 19: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi announces the launch of operations to retake the western side of Mosul. —