Presence of Turkish troops hampers Mosul liberation

Asked if USA forces advising the Mosul operation faced increased risk, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook told reporters Thursday that "the secretary (of defense) has made clear that our forces in Iraq are in harm's way".

Obama said preparations for the fight, including the movement of Iraqi and Kurdish forces into the area, had begun.

"We hope within the next few months we're going to kick Daesh out of Mosul, and we'll deliver a huge blow to what Daesh believes in", he said, using another common name for Islamic State.

"This is going to be hard".

Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, has been under the IS control for more than two years, when the extremist group took control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions in June 2014.

It's going to be challenging.

Turkey has intelligence data that concentration of troops of militants is observed in northern Iraqi city of Mosul, as well as Iraqi town of Telafer consisting of mainly ethnic Turkmen, and these militants plan to kill the Turkmens living in northern Iraq, which is unacceptable for Turkey, Erdogan had said.

Yet military experts have warned that retaking Mosul is an incredible arduous task that plays to the extremist group's advantages, including its ability to embed among civilians.

Some 1 million people could be displaced by the battle in Mosul, U.S. and United Nations officials say.

A local source in the major city informed the Iraqi News that the militant group have stolen around 23 human organs of its members and the injured ones in the hospitals of the province for the goal of trafficking.

"We feel confident that we will be in a position to move forward fairly rapidly", Obama said, vowing to fight "right at the heart of the ISIL operation in Mosul". The Obama administration considers Abadi to be a major improvement over the sectarian approach of his predecessor, Nouri al-Maliki, though Abadi has faced serious domestic political challenges in recent months. The Democratic presidential nominee was holding her own program of meetings with foreign leaders attending the United Nations summit as she works to portray herself as more presidential than Republican Donald Trump.

Obama also planned to meet Monday with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and socialize with US diplomats who work at the U.N. He was also to raise money in private for Senate Democrats, a day after holding another fundraiser for Hillary Clinton.