The battle to retake control of the Iraqi city of Mosul from Islamic State is underway and going well according to military sources.
Some 2,000 Iraqi special forces are being supported by four brigades of the regular Iraqi Army, 15,000 Sunni militia, 15,000 Kurdish Peshmerga and a few thousand Shia militia.
Around 3,000 IS fighters are estimated to still be in the city with military experts warning of a drawn out battle to clear them out of the city.
Sources say that the use of chemical weapons by IS could become a reality.
