In 2014, the 6th Brigade of the 3rd Division was described as 'the first line of Mosul's defence' against ISIS. Infantry, armour and tanks had been shifted to Anbar in the fight there with ISIS, and had left Mosul with virtually no tanks and a shortage of artillery,' according to Lieutenant General Mahdi Gharawi, commander of the Ninevah operational command. During the fight in Mosul, the offensive in Northern Iraq during June 2014, the division, was almost totally destroyed in fighting with ISIS. The exception appeared to be the 4th Battalion of the 10th Brigade, which had been defending a position outside Tall Afar in early July 2014.