Story highlights Coalition executed 11 airstrikes over Syria, 15 airstrikes over Iraq Friday into Saturday, U.S. says

At least 12 airstrikes target ISIS-held Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, CNN crew sees from afar

(CNN) Coalition airstrikes again pounded ISIS positions in Iraq and Syria on Saturday, including at least a dozen strikes on Mosul, where anti-ISIS forces have been trying to weaken targets ahead of an anticipated fight to wrest Iraq's second largest city from the terror group.

A CNN crew watching from Kurdish positions on Mount Zartak, to the southeast of Mosul, saw at least 12 blasts in the city and heard jets streaking overhead.

ISIS swept into Mosul in June, with Iraqi forces at the time largely fleeing the advance. The Sunni Muslim terror group, also called the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, folded Mosul into what it calls its Islamic caliphate -- territory that it has captured in both countries.

Kurdish forces, which protect a Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq, recently have been trying to surround Mosul to cut off ISIS's lines of supply from Syria, setting up what could be an eventual assault to try to expel the terror group from the city.

Iraqi ground forces could begin a move to retake the city as soon as April, a U.S. Central Command official told CNN earlier this week

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