Forces to "do everything" to retake Mosul by 2017

WASHINGTON, June 29 (KUNA) - The US-led coalition forces against the so-called Islamic State will "do everything" it can to retake Mosul by 2017, a goal set by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi.
"(The) Prime Minister (of Iraq) has said he wants to be at Mosul by the end of the year," Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve Spokesperson Christopher Garver told reporters. "We are going to do everything we can to make that happen." Garver added that "the two prizes" in the operation against IS are reclaiming Raqqa, Syria and Mosul, Iraq, the self-proclaimed IS capitols in both countries.
Mosul, which is also the groups "oil headquarters" has suffered several blows directly against its oil site and equipment.
In total, the Coalition has reduced about "50 percent" of IS' oil revenues dropping it from approximately USD 300 million a month to USD 150 million, Garver noted.
"That's a lot of money. You can fund a lot of things across the globe," he Garver.
Since the liberation of Fallujah earlier this week, the Iraqi government estimates that between 2,000 and 1,000 IS fighters were killed in the operation, Garver highlighted.
He stressed that the "more we can destroy (IS) on the ground" the better "job of convincing that being a recruiter, being a leader, (is) not a long-term career option." At its height, the number of foreign fighters IS recruited was "upward of 2,000 a month that were coming into Syria, then moving into Iraq." Now the US estimates 'that the flow is down somewhere around between 200 and 500" a month, Garver said.
Altogether the US estimates that that the total size of IS' force is between 19,000 and 25,000 fighters with 60 percent in Iraq and 40 percent in Syria. (end) ak.ajs