Why Mosul is critical in the battle against ISIS

NEW YORK — Iraqi security forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters have begun an assault to dislodge Islamic State militants from the city of Mosul. Here are some reasons the city is strategically and symbolically vital.

POPULATION

Mosul, once home to more than two million residents, was the biggest prize captured by the Islamic State. It gave the group its best claim to legitimacy as an Islamic caliphate, and it has been its most vital source of tax revenue and forced labor.

RELIEF

If recaptured, the city could eventually welcome back hundreds of thousands of people who were displaced. It is also where hundreds of enslaved Yazidi women and children are thought to be held.

CULTURE

Mosul is an ancient Assyrian city and a vital centre of antiquities and historical sites threatened by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. The city’s heritage makes it central to Iraqi identity and hopes that the country might again move forward as a multicultural society.

DEMOGRAPHICS

In a country dominated by Shiite political groups, Mosul is the biggest Sunni-dominated city. It was also the centre of the biggest Christian population before the Islamic State invasion.

RESOURCES

The Islamic State’s chemical weapons operation is based in the city, and the group got a huge boost from raiding US armories there. Mosul commands critical road networks and physical resources, and it was also where the group rebuilt in secrecy when it was known as al-Qaeda in Iraq. NEW YORK TIMES