Sputnik- Approximately 3,000 to 5,000 Daesh militants still remain in Mosul and over 2,000 were killed or badly injured, US-Led Coalition Commander Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend said.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)�� Townsend visited a coalition air base near�Mosul together with�US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, who arrived in�Iraq on�a surprise visit to�thank US-led coalition troops for�their service as�part of�the fight against�Daesh, according to�the Pentagon�s press service.

�At the start of�the campaign, we estimated somewhere between�at the low end 3,500, at�the high end, about�6,000.

By our calculations we think we have killed or badly wounded over�2,000. So if you do the math, that's still 3,000-5,000,� Townsend said on�Sunday as�quoted in�the Pentagon press release. The Iraqi operation to�liberate Mosul, which was occupied by�Daesh in�June 2014, has been ongoing since�October 17. The offensive is led by�Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Iraqi soldiers backed by�the US-led anti-terror coalition.