Ninewa Operational Command

There were publicly revealed plans to establish two Iraqi Army divisions with Peshmerga, Kurdish Regional Guards, manpower.

[4] Each was to have a strength of 14,700 (and transferring soldiers to the main Iraqi Army was planned to shield the remaining Peshmerga from painful personnel cuts.)

On 4 June, Iraqi police, under the command of Lieutenant General Mahdi Al-Gharrawi, cornered ISIL military leader Abu Abdulrahman al-Bilawi near Mosul,[6] in Iraq.

Ghaidan and Qanbar's retreating convoy created the impression that Iraq's security forces were deserting[8] and so Iraqi Army soldiers started to flee Mosul.

[8] On the morning of 10 June, Gharawi and 26 of his men, who were still at the operation command centre in the western part of the city, decided to fight their way across a bridge to eastern Mosul.

On the east bank, their five vehicles were set ablaze and after coming under heavy fire, during which three of the soldiers were killed, it was every man for himself, as Gharawi said.

[9] The militants seized numerous facilities, including Mosul International Airport, which had served as a hub for the U.S. military in the region.

However parts of the 15th Division, raised in central Iraq, were never sent north to fight, as the Baghdad Belts had an ISIS presence and numerous Shite militias.