Airstrikes on ISIL increase ahead of battle for Mosul

The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State extremist group is stepping up airstrikes in and around the militant-held city of Mosul as thousands of Iraqi ground troops move into position for a push to retake Iraq's second largest city, officials said.

The coalition said in a statement Friday that its planes conducted more than 50 airstrikes in the past two weeks around Mosul, which has shrunk from 2.5 million people to around 600,000 since falling under extremist control two years ago.

It is the last major Iraqi city still in the hands of the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS.

The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, which is aimed at eliminating the Islamic State terrorist group from Iraq and Syria.

"We have been intensifying our efforts in and around Mosul," said Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition.

The plan to wrest control of the city, located 250 miles north of Baghdad, involves some 30,000 troops in one of the most complex operations yet for Iraq's military.

The ground troops are moving in to the south and east of Mosul, the Associated Press reported.

"All the troop movements now are related to the Mosul operation," said Iraqi Army Brig. Gen. Firas Bashar, who is stationed at an Iraqi army base in Makhmour, according to the AP.

Dorrian said earlier this week that the Mosul operation is on the “order of magnitude larger than the liberation battles in cities such as Ramadi, Fallujah and Sharqat.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi informed Mosul residents of the pending operation and asked them to cooperate with security forces, Dorrian said.

He said the Iraqi government is working with the United Nations and other nongovernmental organizations to help people who are expected to flee Mosul when fighting begins. He said Iraq is directing 20 campsites for displaced people and is working with other groups to pre-position resources to take care of them.