u.s.-Led Coalition: Security Council and Coalition Partners

u.s.-led coalition: He paid tribute to Iraqi security forces and their coalition partners for trying to limit the impact of military operations to protect civilians, even if that comes at the cost of prolonging a harsh, bitter campaign that continues to claim both civilian and military lives, according to CTV. Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, officially launched the operation to retake Mosul, the country's second-largest city, in October. But Jan Kubis told the Security Council that despite progress, fighting remains a tremendous challenge because IS fighters are increasingly using civilians as human shields in a last-gasp effort that reveals little more than the inherent inhuman barbarity of the terrorists. The city's east was declared fully liberated in January and the fight for the west was launched the following month. The city fell to IS fighters during a lightning charge in June 2014 that left nearly a third of Iraq in IS militants' hands and plunged the country into its most severe crisis since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. It has been marked by some of the most grueling and deadly combat in the fight against IS in Iraq to date. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.