On 21 January 2015, 5,000 Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers liberated multiple villages neighboring Mosul, amid speculation that the Iraqi Army was preparing for an assault on Mosul.[1] The Peshmerga forces also disrupted essential ISIL supply routes between Mosul, Tal Afar, and Syria, and they reclaimed over 500 kilometers of land in the region.[1] However, Kurdish officials states that they do not plan to move beyond primarily-Kurdish areas, and that retaking the city of Mosul itself was the responsibility of the Iraqi Army.[1] An estimated 200 ISIL fighters were killed.