The day after ISIL in Iraq

"I came [today] from a liberated Mosul… This is the first time that the Iraqi army is fighting with Kurdish Peshmerga forces side by side against ISIL [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] … [But] winning the war means nothing unless we also win peace," Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said during a keynote speech at the fifth annual Sulaymaniyah (Suli) Forum last week, entitled "Beyond Daesh: Ending the Cycle of Conflict, Toward Durable Solutions." 

The forum, which was hosted by the American University of Iraq Sulaymaniyah, brought together senior officials, distinguished analysts, scholars, sector leaders and journalists from the Middle East and North Africa, Europe and the United States to discuss current challenges and long-term solutions for the Middle East. 

Since the Mosul offensive kicked off in October 2016, Iraqi security forces - together with Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, Sunni Arab tribesmen and Shiite militia members, assisted by U.S.-led coalition air support - have made substantial gains on the ground in terms of pushing ISIL out of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city and the last ISIL stronghold in the country.

A month ago, Iraqi troops captured the east bank of the Tigris River, which divides the city. Since then, they have been moving deeper into western Mosul, where the old center is located. However, the density of the civilian population, the difficulty of moving tanks and armored vehicles through narrow streets and ISIL's network of secret tunnels and passageways underneath the city makes it harder to capture the western part. Therefore, the second part of the Mosul offensive has been conducted with almost a surgeon's sensitivity to avoid collateral damage.

"The conduct of war is going to determine the...