Iraqi forces launch offensive to drive IS from western Mosul

A member of the Iraqi federal police carries an Iraqi flag during a battle against the Islamic State, in Hamam al-Alil, Iraq, Sunday, Feb. 2017. U.S.-backed Iraqi forces launched a large-scale military operation on Sunday to dislodge Islamic State militants from the western half of Mosul city. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)HAMAM AL-ALIL, Iraq (AP) — U.S.-backed Iraqi forces launched a major air-and-ground offensive Sunday to retake western Mosul from Islamic State militants and drive the extremist group from its last major urban bastion in Iraq.

Ground units pushed into a belt of villages outside the country's second-largest city, and plumes of smoke rose into the sky early in the morning as…