Volunteers to fight the Islamic State, from different Iraqi factions including Kurdish and Yazidis, train at a camping area near Kurdish security points on Bashiqa mountain, around 15km Northeast of the Islamic State held city of Mosul, March 7, 2015. The Iraqi army will need Kurdish fighters’ help to retake Mosul, the largest city under the control of Islamic State, Iraqi Finance Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said, with the planned offensive expected to be very challenging. Mosul, 400 km (250 miles) north of Baghdad, has been designated by the government as the next target for Iraq’s armed forces after they retook the western city of Ramadi.”Mosul needs good planning, preparations, commitment from all the key players,” Zebari, a Kurd, said in an interview on Monday in Baghdad. “Peshmerga is a major force; you cannot do Mosul without Peshmerga,” he told Reuters, referring to the armed forces of Iraqi Kurdistan, an […]