The battle for Mosul

AS IRAQ’S army, backed by America and its allies, mobilises at Mosul’s gates, Islamic State’s rigid hold over Iraq’s second city shows signs of slipping. In August an Iraqi ground offensive pushed IS from the Qayyara area, some 65km (40 miles) south of Mosul, and its adjacent oil wells, costing the self-styled caliphate much of its revenue, and allowing a big forward base to be built. Jihadists’ salaries, once higher than those of Iraqi soldiers, have plummeted. Its hope of retaining an industrial base is but a dream. When it left Qayyara IS set the oil wells aflame. An orderly tax regime is degenerating into extortion of the 1.5m people left under its rule. For the right price, anyone can leave the city. Even the “caliph”, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is said to have fled to take refuge in a village.