Bătălia pentru Mosul (2016-2017). Câteva observații despre dinamica puterii Statului Islamic, radiografiată de surse deschise

The text is aimed at exploring, with a limited amount of details, the way in which various open sources,both from the Middle East and the Western World (U.S. and Europe) had described and analyzed the battle for Mosul, fought between October 2016 and July 2017 by Iraqi, Kurdish and international forces against the so called Islamic State (or SI). Main stages of the battle are taken into account, together with some problems and sensitive topics open sources have properly identified: that of large numbers of civilian casualties; the fact that the final results of the battle for Mosul are strongly enhancing Iranian influence in the Greater Middle East;possible and probable changes of the political and military behavior of the Islamic State; and some policy recommendations aimed at soundly stabilizing the Mosul region and denying SI any serious chance of revival.