A huge operation, involving more than 100,000 Iraqi troops, federal police, Shia and Sunni militias, was launched in October 2016 to recapture the country's second-largest city.
Mosul has been under Islamic State control since 2014, when it was used as the base by leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to declare a caliphate across Iraq and Syria.
Military officials estimated up to 5,000 IS fighters were left defending the city when the offensive began, with as many as 2,000 more in towns and villages surrounding the city.
The city - the last IS stronghold in Iraq - is a key milestone in Operation Inherent Resolve, the US-led military intervention to degrade and ultimately destroy the extremist group.
Here is a timeline of the operation to recapture Mosul:
4-10 June 2014Fall of Mosul
Militants from Islamic State began their attack on Mosul on 4 June 2014, after the death of the group's military leader Abu Abdulrahman al-Bilawi near the city on the previous day.
Initially, convoys of pick-up trucks carrying four IS militants entered the city, shooting their way through checkpoints with many of the city's 25,000 soldiers and police away fighting in Fallujah.
The group infiltrated the city, seizing military vehicles and weapons and crucifying, burning and hanging soldiers.
Lieutenant General Mahdi Gharawi, operational commander of Nineveh province which has Mosul as its capital, has been blamed for the city's collapse, with reports that thousands of Iraqi troops tasked with defending it deserted or followed orders to flee in the face of the IS attack.
Gharawi has been charged with dereliction of duty and could be sentenced to death if he is found guilty at a military trial. He denies the charge and claims he was a scapegoat for members of then-prime minister Nuri al-Maliki's regime.
5 July 2014IS leader's sermon
Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi gives a 21-minute sermon at the pulpit of Mosul's Great Mosque of al-Nuri.
The video came days after Islamic State declared a caliphate spanning Iraq and Syria.
In it, he said: "Do jihad in the cause of God, incite the believers and be patient in the face of this hardship.
"If you knew about the reward and dignity in this world and the hereafter through jihad, then none of you would delay in doing it."
19 August 2014Fight for Mosul Dam
Militants from Islamic State began their attack on Mosul on 4 June 2014, after the death of the group's military leader Abu Abdulrahman al-Bilawi near the city on the previous day.
Initially, convoys of pick-up trucks carrying four IS militants entered the city, shooting their way through checkpoints with many of the city's 25,000 soldiers and police away fighting in Fallujah.
The group infiltrated the city, seizing military vehicles and weapons and crucifying, burning and hanging soldiers.
Lieutenant General Mahdi Gharawi, operational commander of Nineveh province which has Mosul as its capital, has been blamed for the city's collapse, with reports that thousands of Iraqi troops tasked with defending it deserted or followed orders to flee in the face of the IS attack.
Gharawi has been charged with dereliction of duty and could be sentenced to death if he is found guilty at a military trial. He denies the charge and claims he was a scapegoat for members of then-prime minister Nuri al-Maliki's regime.
5 July 2014IS leader's sermon
Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi gives a 21-minute sermon at the pulpit of Mosul's Great Mosque of al-Nuri.
The video came days after Islamic State declared a caliphate spanning Iraq and Syria.
In it, he said: "Do jihad in the cause of God, incite the believers and be patient in the face of this hardship.
"If you knew about the reward and dignity in this world and the hereafter through jihad, then none of you would delay in doing it."
19 August 2014Fight for Mosul Dam
IS seized the strategically important Mosul Dam, which provides water and power to millions of people down the Tigris River valley, in August 2014.
Kurdish forces, backed by US airstrikes on IS, fought to retake the key facility hindered by roadside bombs left behind by retreating militants.
The US military had warned of the danger of the dam collapsing, with estimates saying 500,000 people in Mosul and Baghdad could be killed if it did give way.
The hydroelectric dam - dubbed by the US Army Corps of Engineers as "the most dangerous in the world" in 2007 - requires constant grouting to maintain its structural integrity.
Sky News Special Correspondent Alex Crawford reported from the damas Peshmerga troops fought with the militants to drive them away from the area.
2015US airstrikes begin
A major military operation involving a force of up to 25,000 Iraqi and Kurdish troops to sever supply routes and then recapture neighbouring areas outside the city was planned for the spring.
The US began co-ordinating airstrikes on Mosul with Kurdish forces to target supply lines and IS positions around the city.
But the offensive was postponed until October 2016 after IS captured Ramadi in May 2015.
The sustained bombardment did temporarily force militants to begin leaving Mosul as the US-led coalition dropped leaflets on the city warning residents to evacuate ahead of the offensive.
IS responded by threatening to behead civilians over loudspeakers if they attempted to flee.
In March, IS leader al-Baghdadi is reportedly seriously injured by a US airstrike in the al-Baaj district of Mosul.
21 October 2016On the frontline
The postponed offensive began in March 2016, with Iraqi troops, Shia and Sunni militias advancing on Mosul from the east.
Kurdish forces, backed by US airstrikes on IS, fought to retake the key facility hindered by roadside bombs left behind by retreating militants.
The US military had warned of the danger of the dam collapsing, with estimates saying 500,000 people in Mosul and Baghdad could be killed if it did give way.
The hydroelectric dam - dubbed by the US Army Corps of Engineers as "the most dangerous in the world" in 2007 - requires constant grouting to maintain its structural integrity.
Sky News Special Correspondent Alex Crawford reported from the damas Peshmerga troops fought with the militants to drive them away from the area.
2015US airstrikes begin
A major military operation involving a force of up to 25,000 Iraqi and Kurdish troops to sever supply routes and then recapture neighbouring areas outside the city was planned for the spring.
The US began co-ordinating airstrikes on Mosul with Kurdish forces to target supply lines and IS positions around the city.
But the offensive was postponed until October 2016 after IS captured Ramadi in May 2015.
The sustained bombardment did temporarily force militants to begin leaving Mosul as the US-led coalition dropped leaflets on the city warning residents to evacuate ahead of the offensive.
IS responded by threatening to behead civilians over loudspeakers if they attempted to flee.
In March, IS leader al-Baghdadi is reportedly seriously injured by a US airstrike in the al-Baaj district of Mosul.
21 October 2016On the frontline
The postponed offensive began in March 2016, with Iraqi troops, Shia and Sunni militias advancing on Mosul from the east.
They faced strong resistance in villages outside, with IS deploying suicide bombers and well as mortars and machine guns.
US-led coalition airstrikes targeted key IS positions around the city as Iraqi forces slowly gained control of the areas surrounding the south and east of Mosul.
By October, the assault to recapture Mosul was declared by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi with a huge number of troops vastly outnumbering the IS militants.
The following month, troops entered the east of the city where they were met with fierce fighting and defences erected by IS including road blocks, booby traps, snipers and suicide bombs.
Sky News Chief Correspondent Stuart Ramsay was embedded with the Iraqi army's elite Golden Division, a US-trained special forces unit, as they arrived on the front lines of the offensive.
The Golden Division was tasked with retaking the city and to rescue civilians.
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