Yet the actual consequences of this week's events depend heavily on several critical military, demographic, and political developments whose outcome now is totally unknown.
These include: How fierce a fight will ISIL put up in Mosul, after not resisting much at Dabiq? Will Iraqi Sunni, Shia and Kurdish forces and political leaders be able to reach understandings on how to govern Mosul and other liberated areas? Will Turkey be satisfied that it has achieved its military-strategic aims in Syria and Iraq, and refrain from confrontations with Iraqi or Kurdish troops? [...]
Also significant in the campaign against Mosul has been the Iraqi armed forces and government taking the lead on the ground, and - unprecedentedly - fighting in close coordination with Kurdish forces.
This implies a critical new level of shared political appreciation that only these two groups of fighters should liberate the city on the ground, while others provide support from the air or in other ways, including intelligence and logistics.
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