Volunteer fighters are secretly battling ISIS in Mosul

They're called the Mosul Liberation Battalions, comprised of former military officers, tribesmen, students, and businessmen, and Iraq's vice president said they are behind more than 300 attacks against ISIS in Mosul and Nineveh Province.

Osama al-Nujaifi told NBC News that the relatively unknown battalions are targeting ISIS fighters on a daily basis and have killed senior leaders. Mosul fell to ISIS in June, making it impossible to get any weapons into the city, so the fighters have to use whatever they can find. "All their operations are planned and implemented according to resources they have," al-Nujaifi said.

The resistance movement's operations include sniper attacks, blasts using homemade bombs, and raids on weapons-storage sites. Reinforcements are in the area, al-Nujaifi said, with 3,000 soldiers close to Mosul's borders. "Soldiers are in high spirits, waiting to be involved in the battle to liberate Mosul," he said. "They have all motives to liberate their lands."

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