The fight against ISIS has been slow-going. The Iraqi army has performed poorly throughout the war, international aid has been scant, and splintered groups of Kurdish fighters have had to fight under-supplied and under-manned since ISIS’s rise to power. However, ISIS is losing, forced to retreat from nearly all of their territory in Iraq. Backed into a corner, ISIS’s only option is to fight for their last major stronghold in Iraq: Mosul.

Mosul is Iraq’s second-most populous city, home to nearly 2.5 million people before the war and roughly 1.5 million now. The city was taken in ISIS’s original conquest during the summer of 2014, and has been held ever since. Mosul is a city of huge strategic importance; without access to Mosul’s trading routes and industry, ISIS will not be able to sustain any of its remaining territory in Iraq for long.

A coalition of Iraqi, Kurdish and International fighters, 94,000 soldiers in total, began shelling the city’s 6,000 remaining ISIS fighters on the morning of October 17. In order to capture the city, allied military forces first need to liberate over 100 towns surrounding the city. In order to do this however, allied forces need to navigate through thousands of mines, a complicated network of tunnels and trenches dug by ISIS, and protect the nearly 1.5 million civilians still left in the city. U.S. airstrikes have helped pave the way for the fighters, destroying numerous chemical weapons factories, media centers, and barracks.

So far, the fighting has been going well. In 3 days, allied forces have captured 40% of the province and have incited citizens to revolt against the ISIS occupiers. ISIS has nowhere left to run, and has been forced to dig deep and try to hold out for as long as they can.

Students at Wayne Hills are relieved to hear the news. “Hopefully, this war will finally be over,” said Senior Maros Adamec, “It’s already gone on for far too long and too many innocent people have been killed. This could finally be the end of it”.

As of now, ISIS has suffered heavy casualties, but there is no indication that they will flee the city. For now, the world can only wait to see if ISIS will be driven out of Iraq.