Category: War, from Wikidata’s class “military operation”
Fall of Mosul
Part of: Iraqi Civil War of 2014–2017
Wikidata classes on our event-class list: military operation (all its classes: Wikidata item)
The fall of Mosul refers to a historical event in Iraq, occurring between 4 and 10 June 2014, when Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and allied insurgents captured the city of Mosul from the Iraqi Army. The ISIL forces were initially led by Abu Abdulrahman al-Bilawi, while the Iraqi army's forces were led by Lieutenant General Mahdi al-Gharrawi.
On 4 June, the insurgents began their efforts to capture Mosul. The Iraqi army officially had 30,000 soldiers and another 30,000 federal police stationed in the city, facing a 3,000-member attacking force. The Iraqi forces' actual numbers were much lower due to ghost soldiers, severely reducing combat ability. After six days of combat and massive desertions, Iraqi soldiers received orders to retreat. The city of Mosul, including Mosul International Airport and the helicopters located there, all fell under ISIL's control. An estimated 500,000 civilians fled from the city.
A former commander of the Iraqi ground forces, Ali Ghaidan, accused former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of being the one who issued the order to withdraw from the city of Mosul. Mosul would remain under ISIL control for a few years. Iraqi forces initiated an offensive to retake the city in 2016; the Battle of Mosul ended in its liberation in July the following year.
Text retrieved 2026-09-26 from Wikipedia.
Cite this
The link is the Wikipedia revision of September 14, 2026 (revision 1374822262), whose lead is exactly the text shown here.
APA 7
Fall of Mosul. (2026, September 14). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fall_of_Mosul&oldid=1374822262
MLA 9
“Fall of Mosul.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Sept. 2026, en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fall_of_Mosul&oldid=1374822262.
Chicago (note)
Wikipedia, “Fall of Mosul,” last modified September 14, 2026, 07:36 (UTC), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fall_of_Mosul&oldid=1374822262.
Chicago (shortened note)
Wikipedia, “Fall of Mosul.”
Chicago cites well-known reference works such as Wikipedia in notes only, not in the bibliography.
This event on Middle East, 1900–present: https://middleeast.events/event/fall-of-mosul
If you use the map’s borders: CShapes 2.0 - historical country borders. Schvitz, G., et al. (2022). CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. https://icr.ethz.ch/data/cshapes/ (modified by middleeast.events); West Bank Areas A/B/C: UN OCHA / HDX "Oslo Agreement" Areas A/B/C (West Bank). Distributed under the legacy HumanitarianResponse.info terms: non-commercial use with credit to UN OCHA. https://data.humdata.org/dataset/state-of-palestine-other-0-0-0-0-0; some corrected border points: GeoNames - CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.geonames.org/
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by Wikipedia contributors, from the article Fall of Mosul. Classes are Wikidata’s labels (CC0). “Part of” is Wikidata’s statement, in its labels (CC0).