Cyprus News Stay in touch with all the latest news from Cyprus with regular updates on the main stories from the newsroom of The Cyprus Weekly newspaper The Pentagon said on Tuesday that Iraqi forces were meeting objectives and were ahead of schedule on the first day of the offensive to retake the city of Mosul from the Islamic State militant group. Iraqi government forces launched a US-backed offensive on Monday to drive Islamic State from the northern city of Mosul, a high-stakes battle to retake the militants' last major stronghold in the country.