Now Mosul News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

By mid-2014, isis controlled nearly a third of the country, threatening kirkuk in the north and the capital city, baghdad. only three years after he had pulled out all u.s. troops, president obama started sending americans back in. >> we don't have a strategy at all. we're basically sort of playing this day to day. >> supported by u.s. troops, weapons, and training, the iraqi army gradually stopped the isis advance and now has forced it out of the major cities it once held. caught up with david petraeus to ask what went wrong with his grand strategy. did we withdraw too soon? >> what created t...

The iraqi advance. it's now in an abandoned butcher shop in the heart of the old city. his team has grown to around 20 people, both foreigners and locals. among them is dr. aziz, an iraqi doctor from mosul. while reed changed his life for this war, dr. aziz had his life changed by it. when isis took over, they forced him into service as one of the main hospitals. >> so this is the hospital? >> yes. >> who were you treating? civilians or isis fighters? >> most of them are isis fighters that come here to the emergency department. >> and what would have happened if you refused? >> if i refused, t...

Of ground. we climbed into one of the iraqi special forces' old american humvees. it's battleworn, shot up, and the driver said damaged by an isis suicide bomber today. then it was on foot, quickly because rounds whizzed by. but it was in the city itself that the fighting got ugly. iraqi forces backed by american fire power took the city street by street, house by house. isis had years to prepare for this and was willing to use every dirty trick, human shields, booby traps, grenade carrying drones and many suicide bombers to try to hold on. by late june, isis fighters were in full retreat. the...

Survive the moments. that the resentment that fuels the insurgency continues to simmer under the rubble only to reuprety raert that's what's happened here time and time again. including in mosul. a city that american troops have libertied twice before what's to stop that from happening again? will -- when american military officials say the iraqi government and american officials both say that they've set up iraq for success. they say that because they argue that life under isis was so bad that iraqis will have no choice but now to pull together and make sure that nothing like this ever happen...

When all is said and done, this is a victory. isis was driven out of mosul. that in itself is an enormous achievement. isis's image as an invincible force was buried in city. equally important was the way the american military worked hand in glove with an iraqi army that just a few years ago collapsed in disgrace. as we've shone you that victory came at a heavy price. there is no such thing as a free war. iraq's second largest city lies in ruins. the residents have suffered another round of unimaginable violence. and they will never forget. the children you saw today coming out of the wrecks o...