As the dust settles after the successful Kurdish effort to liberate the northern Iraqi city of Sinjar (see page Defence and security), all eyes are on the two capitals of Islamic State (IS, or Daesh), which are connected by Highway 47, the main IS supply route that passes through the liberated city. Mosul is by far the bigger of the two. At around 150km2, it is the second largest city in Iraq and still populated by well over 500,000 people.
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