With Iraqi forces coming from the south and the Kurdish peshmerga to the east, Islamic State leaders are fleeing Mosul, Iraq, the U.S. military says.
Gen. Gary Volesky says there's been movement out of Mosul, and "indications that leaders have left," although it's unclear where Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of ISIS, is at the moment; some believe he remains in Mosul, while others say he left and is in a northern Iraqi city, BBC News reports. It's thought that 5,000 ISIS fighters are still in Mosul, once the second largest city in Iraq. "A lot of foreign fighters we expect to stay, because they're not going to be able to exfiltrate as easily as some of the local fighters, or the local leadership, so we expect there to be a fight," Volesky said.
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