0:00:00 > 0:00:01The funeral has taken place in Slovakia of the murdered
0:00:01 > 0:00:02investigative journalist, Jan Kuciak.
0:00:02 > 0:00:04Hundreds of mourners attended the ceremony -
0:00:04 > 0:00:07a day after the burial of his fiancee who was shot dead
0:00:08 > 0:00:09at the same time.
0:00:09 > 0:00:12Now on BBC News our reporter Ayman Oghanna joins a unit
0:00:12 > 0:00:14of the Iraqi special forces as they advanced on Mosul.
0:00:14 > 0:00:24He tells the story of the men who reclaimed the city.
0:00:24 > 0:00:33The fight to retake Mosul. One of the largest urban conflicts since
0:00:33 > 0:00:43the Second World War. And the frontline in the battle the
0:00:43 > 0:00:56so-called Islamic State. I was given rare access to an elite unit of
0:00:56 > 0:01:10Iraq's special forces. The first team into Mosul. We're just getting
0:01:10 > 0:01:21ready to set up a base, and suddenly we being fired upon by Isis. These
0:01:21 > 0:01:55are the men who reunited Iraq and liberated Mosul. But at what cost?
0:01:55 > 0:02:09These are the soldiers of Iraq's elite Counter-Terrorism Service.
0:02:09 > 0:02:20Spirits were high. To them, Mosul was just another battle. And one
0:02:20 > 0:02:27they were going to win.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20This major is a gold division of the site, leading the ground offensive
0:03:20 > 0:03:27towards Mosul. The operation deliberate Mosul is about to begin
0:03:27 > 0:03:33for these men. But their primary target is a string of villages on
0:03:33 > 0:03:43the outside of Mosul. But as we set off, almost read away, the team
0:03:43 > 0:03:53discovered a series of roadside bombs? Isis have been using
0:03:53 > 0:03:59improvised explicit devices in unprecedented numbers. -- explosive.
0:03:59 > 0:04:04They've had two years to mind the entry to the city and the villages
0:04:04 > 0:04:08surrounding it. So even on this off-road track, we have inched to a
0:04:08 > 0:04:11crawl, as technicians go ahead slowly to find them and blow them up
0:04:11 > 0:04:28in control these potions. -- controlled explosions. As we begin
0:04:28 > 0:04:46to move forward again, we suddenly come under attack. GUNFIRE.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00GUNFIRE.
0:05:04 > 0:05:10We have just reached the outskirts of an Islamic state held village. We
0:05:10 > 0:05:15don't know if there are Isis fighters inside. It is a small
0:05:15 > 0:05:19village. But the major is getting all of his men together to move on
0:05:19 > 0:05:27the village. GUNFIRE.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40So as we are moving into the village, on the radio, we're hearing
0:05:40 > 0:05:47a lot of people shouting white flag. So we think there are a lot of
0:05:47 > 0:05:50people inside the village as well as Isis fighters.
0:06:06 > 0:06:11GUNFIRE.
0:06:16 > 0:06:34People may still be trapped inside.
0:06:39 > 0:06:45The threat could come from anywhere: Car bombs, suicide bombers, and
0:06:45 > 0:06:55wrote minds. -- road. Intelligence gathering is vital.
0:07:17 > 0:07:23There is a wire.
0:07:49 > 0:07:57The major's men are searching and securing the area. They are looking
0:07:57 > 0:08:06for any remaining Isis fighters.
0:08:14 > 0:08:20Nothing is taken for granted.
0:08:28 > 0:08:33This sniper leads his team to a rooftop.
0:08:35 > 0:08:42They need to survey, secure, and protect the unit, from men like
0:08:42 > 0:08:45themselves on the other side.
0:09:24 > 0:10:31The men have captured a suspected Islamic state fighter. Is he an
0:10:31 > 0:11:26early ordinary villager turned by Isis? -- is he an ordinary villager.
0:11:26 > 0:11:34That afternoon, this man's beard is forced to be removed. The major and
0:11:34 > 0:11:39his men would leave the next morning, leaving them behind. We
0:11:39 > 0:12:00never found out whose side he was on, or what happened here. For these
0:12:00 > 0:12:09villages, the war is now over. -- villagers.
0:12:16 > 0:12:37It is day two of the advance. Again. So we have just arrived in the
0:12:37 > 0:12:41village here that is supposed to be secure. We are getting ready to set
0:12:41 > 0:12:55up a base and we are being fired upon by Isis. The soldiers often
0:12:55 > 0:13:05told me that fighting this war is like fighting ghosts. They never saw
0:13:05 > 0:13:12them, but they always knew they were there.
0:14:08 > 0:14:14The guys had discovered a tunnel, a massive, massive tunnel, just ten
0:14:14 > 0:14:20metres away from the makeshift headquarters they have set up. To
0:14:20 > 0:14:31avoid coalition airstrikes, Isis fighters went underground.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53IDS constructed a vast network of elaborate tunnels in which they
0:14:53 > 0:14:58could safely move, Hyde, and wait -- Islamic State. Iraqi soldiers called
0:14:58 > 0:15:03them rats.
0:15:19 > 0:15:32Major Salam sets fire to the tunnel's entrance. What they're
0:15:32 > 0:15:36doing now is taking tyres, burning them, and putting them into holes
0:15:36 > 0:15:41inside the tunnel to literally try and smoke any Islamic State fighters
0:15:41 > 0:15:49left inside. Frontlines taken during the day can be easily lost at night,
0:15:49 > 0:16:05when IS fighters split back across them to launch a surprise attack. --
0:16:05 > 0:16:08slip back.
0:16:28 > 0:16:42IS are attacking through the tunnels.
0:17:25 > 0:17:44Aley has just been shot. Medics are doing everything they can.
0:17:51 > 0:17:56He doesn't make it.
0:18:13 > 0:18:18So it has been a pretty rough night. IS launched a surprise attack. The
0:18:18 > 0:18:24response was pretty chaotic. We joined them as they went in Humvees
0:18:24 > 0:18:29and went towards the lines to fight ISIS, where they killed 30 IS
0:18:29 > 0:18:35fighters, they said. But 17 men were killed and there was a big incident
0:18:35 > 0:18:42of friendly fire. Talking to the guys here has a real element of
0:18:42 > 0:18:54sadness and anger even.
0:19:23 > 0:19:30We are moving out again, pushing forward to the outskirts of Mosul.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34When IS swept into northern Iraq in 2014, many welcome them as
0:19:34 > 0:19:48liberators from and oppressive Shia dominated government in Baghdad.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51There's relief amongst some that they are gone, but off-camera some
0:19:51 > 0:19:57of the people I spoke to were afraid of government reprisals.
0:20:10 > 0:20:16It's the final push into Mosul, a city of over 1 million people lies
0:20:16 > 0:20:21ahead. Over two years ago, the so-called Islamic State the city of
0:20:21 > 0:20:26Mosul and the fears and imaginations of the world. Today is the day the
0:20:26 > 0:20:30Iraqi government is trying to take it back. But the Golden Division
0:20:30 > 0:20:38faced an enemy like no other.
0:20:56 > 0:21:08When IS first took the city, the Iraqi army just fled. Now they are
0:21:08 > 0:21:11back.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46It's the first time that the Iraqi army has entered Mosul in more than
0:21:46 > 0:21:50two years.
0:22:16 > 0:22:23After nine months of grinding urban warfare through homes and city
0:22:23 > 0:22:28streets, these men would finally capture the ruined heart of the
0:22:28 > 0:22:42Islamic State's to factor capital. -- de facto.
0:22:54 > 0:23:00If there is a memorial to this brutal conflict, then it is here,
0:23:00 > 0:23:03the world's largest cemetery and where most of those killed fighting
0:23:03 > 0:23:07the so-called Islamic State are buried. It's a sprawling monument to
0:23:07 > 0:23:20the generations of men who have been killed in a nation that has gone
0:23:20 > 0:23:32from war to war.