hour or so. bashika is a strategically important town about 20 kilometers from mosul. as this offensive continues you've got peshmerga fighters some four kilometers from mosul. you've also got an iraqi counterintelligence unit we're being told who are within eye shot of mosul. an important town, about 10 or 15 kilometers south of mosul, surrounded by iraqi forces inside we're told foreign fighters from chechnya, from tunisia, from morocco. this is still a hard fight, and not all units are up around mosul. there's still a lot more to be done. inside the city, preparations have been made, suicide bombers, hundreds of them, we're told, have been brought in to the city from syria, and those reports coming from residents inside. also we're told of the positioning of dozens and dozens of truck and car bombs ready for when this assault begins. and even katyusha rocket