VIDEO: Watch Iraqi Special Forces Deployment Around Mosul to Hammer Blow ISIL

Iraqi special forces were on Wednesday continuing to deploy around Mosul suburbs as part of a push to retake the city from the Daesh (ISIS/ISIL/IS) group. AP reported.

The operation to retake Mosul is the largest launched by the Iraqi army since the 2003 US-led invasion. Some 25,000 troops, including Sunni tribal fighters, Kurdish forces known as the peshmerga and the Popular Mobilization Units are approaching the city from different directions.

Daesh (ISIS/ ISIL/IS) have deployed suicide car bombs and fired mortar rounds to slow down the advance of Iraqi troops outside a key town near the militant-held city. The Daesh group captured Mosul when it swept across much of northern and western Iraq in the summer of 2014.