Iraqi commanders say ISIL militants south of Mosul have been withdrawing north of the city, taking hundreds of civilians with them. 

ISIS is going door-to-door in towns and villages south of mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, demanding its civilians move north, marching them north, into mosul proper where they will join some 1.2 million other civilians who will no doubt be used as human shields. This is what the Associated Press and Reuters are both reporting this morning.

It is a troubling new development and what this indicates if anything is that Isis is planning on making a last stand in Mosul.

There had been some talk before that maybe Isis would forfeit the city and move west into Syria and take up positions in Raqqa with civilians and with their families, with the fighters from foreign areas would come to this area in order to defend the so called caliphate that they declared two years ago.

This development shows that this could be a suicide mission and that Iraqi forces and Peshmerga who are based in northern Iraq could be in for a long and blistering battle to take back Mosul.