The Prime Minister of Iraq Haider al-Abadi (Haïder Al-Abadi) has announced the victory of the army in the “liberated” Mosul, after a nearly nine-month standoff ISIS (a terrorist organization banned in Russia — approx. ed). Mr Abadi “has arrived in the liberated Mosul and congratulated the heroic Iraqi fighters and people of great victory”, reads a communiqué issued by the office of the Prime Minister.
“In the city there is still one or two pockets of resistance of the jihadists,” reads the communiqué. “Victory is inevitable, the latter is surrounded by jihadists (…) it’s a matter of time before announcing the great victory of our people,” added Abadi.
Fighting, however, is not yet completed in the city in Northern Iraq, where air strikes and gunfire were still heard in the statements by the Prime Minister. According to Monde special correspondent in Mosul Ellen’s living room (Hélène Sallon) “fierce fighting” continued on Sunday afternoon.
Moderate congratulations
France, which participates in the international coalition welcomed the return of the city. “Mosul is freed from ISIS: France expresses its appreciation to all who contributed to this victory,” wrote the President of France Emmanuel macron on Twitter.
The British defence Secretary Michael Fallon (Michael Fallon) has congratulated Baghdad, but said that “much remains to be done” in the region to defeat the jihadists.
Colonel Salam Jasim Hussein (Hussein Jassem Salam), whose battalion is currently involved in the latest clashes, believes that the IG has left about 700 fighters, able to defend themselves.
The offensive, which began in October 2016
The return of Mosul, which was captured by is militants in June 2014, took place thanks to the offensive, launched on 17 October, the Iraqi military, supported by the international coalition led by the United States.
In January, Iraqi troops have captured the Eastern part of the city, located on the left Bank of the Tigris and attacked the rebels from the West in February. Then the fighting intensified as the militants were trapped in a ring in the old town, narrow and densely populated space.
On Sunday morning the elite units of the Iraqi army reached the right Bank of the Tigris, where the last strongholds of the militants were on the verge of falling.
“Iraqi troops hoisted the Iraqi flag on the right Bank of the Tigris in the old town,” announced Irakia News. After the capture of the rebel sector of the Iraqi troops were moving on.
The great “victory” in Baghdad
Mosul had a huge symbolic value for IG head IG Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (Abou Bakr Al-Baghdad) the only time I performed in public in this city, in July 2014, and declared a “Caliphate” in the vast territories conquered by militants in Iraq and Syria. Since then, the city has become the main Bastion of ISIS in Iraq.
The return of Mosul’s most important victory on Baghdad jihadists in 2014, but it does not mean the end of the war with ISIS, which still controls some areas in Iraq, particularly the city of tal afar and Hawiye in the province of al-Anbar, and the city of Deir ez-Zor, located on the North-East of Syria in the Euphrates valley.
ISIS suffering setbacks in 2015 and its main Outpost in the Northern Syria city of raqqa, nearly repulsed by democratic President Barack Obama in Washington.
In Mosul, after almost nine months of clashes have left entire neighborhoods destroyed, killing thousands of civilians and displaced about a million people. Civilians trapped in the city lived in “terrible” conditions and were suffering from a shortage of all the possible vitally important things, the bombing and fierce fighting. According to the UN, civilians used as human shields.
