The ongoing battle against the Islamic State is playing out live on Facebook.
Rudaw, a Kurdish media group in Iraq, has begun broadcasting on Facebook Live from the front lines in the fight over Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, which is currently embroiled in a battle between ISIS and Kurdish and Iraqi forces.
The fight over Mosul, home to 1.5 million people, is backed by U.S. ground and air forces, who are aiding the Iraqi military and Kurdish troops. On Twitter, Brett McGurk, the U.S. special envoy against ISIS, called the joint operation “historic” and said they were gaining “steady progress” in the effort to unroot ISIS militants.
Godspeed to the heroic Iraqi forces, Kurdish #Peshmerga, and #Ninewa volunteers. We are proud to stand with you in this historic operation.
— Brett McGurk (@brett_mcgurk) October 16, 2016
Steady progress on all fronts in first day of #Mosul operation. Coalition strikes destroyed 52 targets in 24 hours. https://t.co/J8TXCfQY9q
— Brett McGurk (@brett_mcgurk) October 17, 2016
The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement released in July that the fight over Mosul could result in the displacement of more than a million people.
Facebook Live, which launched in April, has become the go-to platform for live news and other events around the world. The Facebook Live map allows users to explore all the live video streams from news outlets and individuals anywhere that Facebook operates.
Elsewhere in Iraq, users streamed videos of themselves chatting to followers from their homes, sermons from mosques, and soccer games.
H/T Mashable