The Men Who Fought for Mosul

The funeral has taken place

in Slovakia of the murdered

investigative

journalist, Jan Kuciak.

Hundreds of mourners

attended the ceremony -

a day after the burial

of his fiancee who was shot dead

at the same time.

Now on BBC News our reporter

Ayman Oghanna joins a unit

of the Iraqi special forces

as they advanced on Mosul.

He tells the story of the men

who reclaimed the city.

The fight to retake Mosul. One of

the largest urban conflicts since

the Second World War. And the

frontline in the battle the

so-called Islamic State. I was given

rare access to an elite unit of

Iraq's special forces. The first

team into Mosul. We're just getting

ready to set up a base, and suddenly

we being fired upon by Isis. These

are the men who reunited Iraq and

liberated Mosul. But at what cost?

These are the soldiers of Iraq's

elite Counter-Terrorism Service.

Spirits were high. To them, Mosul

was just another battle. And one

they were going to win.

This major is a gold division of the

site, leading the ground offensive

towards Mosul. The operation

deliberate Mosul is about to begin

for these men. But their primary

target is a string of villages on

the outside of Mosul. But as we set

off, almost read away, the team

discovered a series of roadside

bombs? Isis have been using

improvised explicit devices in

unprecedented numbers. -- explosive.

They've had two years to mind the

entry to the city and the villages

surrounding it. So even on this

off-road track, we have inched to a

crawl, as technicians go ahead

slowly to find them and blow them up

in control these potions. --

controlled explosions. As we begin

to move forward again, we suddenly

come under attack. GUNFIRE.

GUNFIRE.

We have just reached the outskirts

of an Islamic state held village. We

don't know if there are Isis

fighters inside. It is a small

village. But the major is getting

all of his men together to move on

the village. GUNFIRE.

So as we are moving into the

village, on the radio, we're hearing

a lot of people shouting white flag.

So we think there are a lot of

people inside the village as well as

Isis fighters.

GUNFIRE.

People may still be trapped inside.

The threat could come from anywhere:

Car bombs, suicide bombers, and

wrote minds. -- road. Intelligence

gathering is vital.

There is a wire.

The major's men are searching and

securing the area. They are looking

for any remaining Isis fighters.

Nothing is taken for granted.

This sniper leads his team to a

rooftop.

They need to survey, secure, and

protect the unit, from men like

themselves on the other side.

The men have captured a suspected

Islamic state fighter. Is he an

early ordinary villager turned by

Isis? -- is he an ordinary villager.

That afternoon, this man's beard is

forced to be removed. The major and

his men would leave the next

morning, leaving them behind. We

never found out whose side he was

on, or what happened here. For these

villages, the war is now over. --

villagers.

It is day two of the advance. Again.

So we have just arrived in the

village here that is supposed to be

secure. We are getting ready to set

up a base and we are being fired

upon by Isis. The soldiers often

told me that fighting this war is

like fighting ghosts. They never saw

them, but they always knew they were

there.

The guys had discovered a tunnel, a

massive, massive tunnel, just ten

metres away from the makeshift

headquarters they have set up. To

avoid coalition airstrikes, Isis

fighters went underground.

IDS constructed a vast network of

elaborate tunnels in which they

could safely move, Hyde, and wait --

Islamic State. Iraqi soldiers called

them rats.

Major Salam sets fire to the

tunnel's entrance. What they're

doing now is taking tyres, burning

them, and putting them into holes

inside the tunnel to literally try

and smoke any Islamic State fighters

left inside. Frontlines taken during

the day can be easily lost at night,

when IS fighters split back across

them to launch a surprise attack. --

slip back.

IS are attacking through the

tunnels.

Aley has just been shot. Medics are

doing everything they can.

He doesn't make it.

So it has been a pretty rough night.

IS launched a surprise attack. The

response was pretty chaotic. We

joined them as they went in Humvees

and went towards the lines to fight

ISIS, where they killed 30 IS

fighters, they said. But 17 men were

killed and there was a big incident

of friendly fire. Talking to the

guys here has a real element of

sadness and anger even.

We are moving out again, pushing

forward to the outskirts of Mosul.

When IS swept into northern Iraq in

2014, many welcome them as

liberators from and oppressive Shia

dominated government in Baghdad.

There's relief amongst some that

they are gone, but off-camera some

of the people I spoke to were afraid

of government reprisals.

It's the final push into Mosul, a

city of over 1 million people lies

ahead. Over two years ago, the

so-called Islamic State the city of

Mosul and the fears and imaginations

of the world. Today is the day the

Iraqi government is trying to take

it back. But the Golden Division

faced an enemy like no other.

When IS first took the city, the

Iraqi army just fled. Now they are

back.

It's the first time that the Iraqi

army has entered Mosul in more than

two years.

After nine months of grinding urban

warfare through homes and city

streets, these men would finally

capture the ruined heart of the

Islamic State's to factor capital.

-- de facto.

If there is a memorial to this

brutal conflict, then it is here,

the world's largest cemetery and

where most of those killed fighting

the so-called Islamic State are

buried. It's a sprawling monument to

the generations of men who have been

killed in a nation that has gone

from war to war.