The United States and Iraq are preparing to retake Iraq's second-largest city Mosul from the Islamic State group by this summer, The Wall Street Journal reports. A group of Kurdish fighters and other Western-trained forces should be ready to launch the offensive by the spring or summer, the head of the US military's Central Command General Lloyd Austin told the Journal. The US air strikes have recently focused on putting pressure on IS-held Mosul. Kurdish peshmerga forces have also launched successful offensives against IS-held roads near Mosul, which is in the **rth of the country.