weeks of the campaign they made rapid progress across the open ground leading up to mosul itself but ever since iraqi forces entered the eastern flank of the city, thing have slowed down incredibly because they re dealing with an enemy that is just so motivated and prepared. they re really throwing everything at them and they know this urban environment so well. so they know the narrow streets, they re using waves of car bombs, they ve dug tunnels, they re using mortar fire in this populated area so it s an incredibly tough battle, one that s having an impact on the civilian population and, of course, on the iraqi soldiers as well that are going up against this on a daily basis. this offensive began in october and iraqi officials have been noticeably tight-lipped on the casualty numbers. what have you learned about this? the iraqi government has said they re not talking casualty numbers until the operation is finished so we re left to draw our own conclusions what we ve seen on the