Page 18 - Inside Mosul News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Vital role. the fact they are doing what they're doing is making this offensive possible. >> do we have a sense what isis has been doing inside mosul for the last two years in terms of preparing for this? are they dug in? have they tunnelled through? we have seen this before with isis, do you think they will try to maintain their numbers and just flee and retreat? >> one of the real key elements of the way of war, the way people fight wars in the middle east is they have that option to flee. you saw that with saddam hussein's army when the u.s. invaded in 2003. the fact they actually melded in...

>> reporter: and they appear to be attacking sinjar from three areas. one from the north near sinjar mountain where you saw the terrifying pictures of people fleeing for their lives in brutality of isis. today, we understand the offensive started at 9:00 last night. intensification of coalition air strikes. we saw it throughout the sky in the dark. from where we are, toward the west of the city itself, we are seeing intense fighting around. you cannot see it in the distance behind me, but this is the chief objective. that is the many highway that runs through sinjar. it goes through mosul in i...

>> we were told by a very senior member of isis who i've been having regular conversations with over the last three years, that abu bakr alba baghdadi was immobilized. he was still functioning, still talking, still communicating, but he's been bedridden ever since. he's not been able to move. and there is a very real fear that he has enduring spinal damage. >> but he is conscious, yes? >> he's conscious. he's functioning. he's able to communicate with his subordinates. he's convening meetings. as far as we can tell he's not in direct day-to-day control of the organization. >> that's my follow-...

Erbil and government officials that he's stepped in in a fill-in role. he's one of the people that's been put on the list with the $7 million bounty on his head. that happened last wednesday. we also learned today from inside mosul that a sermon was given at the grand mosque in mosul last friday. that was the very same mosque that al baghdadi made his only appearance last june when he claimed the mantle of caliph. >> if he's one of these four leaders with this bounty on his head i'm also wondering if he's filling in would he be the person -- is he's who's being groomed? >> it's difficult to kn...

Beheaded because they stood up for their christian faith. >> in the process they ended up killing all four of those boys, cutting their heads off for the their faith. it was a level of brutality we cannot relate to. these are modern day nazis. theeing are ideologues that feed on the blood and violence. we're hearing more and more inside mosul and other places of more violence like this. they're not desperate per se, but the radicalization takes them to a place where violence begets more violence. we'll see if recent attempts in mosul to take this back will happen or not, but these stories remi...