Mosul freed from Islamic State SYRIA TRUCE BROKERED BY US, RUSSIA AND JORDAN HOLDING

Iraq PM alAbadi visits city, congratulates armed forces for ousting Islamic State militants

MOSUL: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday congratulated the armed forces for their “victory” over Islamic State in Mosul after eight months of urban warfare, bringing an end to three years of jihadist rule in the city.

The battle has left large parts of Mosul in ruins, killed thousands of civilians and displaced nearly one million people.

“The commander in chief of the armed forces (Prime Minister) Haider al-Abadi arrived in the liberated city of Mosul and congratulated the heroic fighters and Iraqi people for the great victory,” his office said in a statement.

The decaying corpses of militants lay in the narrow streets of the Old City where Islamic State has staged a last stand against Iraqi forces backed by a US-led coalition. The group vowed to “fight to the death” in Mosul, but Iraqi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool told state TV earlier on Sunday that 30 militants had been killed attempting to escape by swimming across the River Tigris that bisects the city. Cornered in a shrinking area, the militants have resorted to sending women suicide bombers among the thousands of civilians who are emerging from the battlefield wounded, malnourished and fearful. The battle has also exacted a heavy toll on Iraq’s security forces.

The Iraqi government does not reveal casualty figures, but a funding request from the US Department of Defense said the elite Counter Terrorism Service, which has spearheaded the fight in Mosul, had suffered 40% losses.

The US leads an international coalition that is backing the campaign against Islamic State in Mosul by conducting airstrikes against the militants and assisting troops on the ground.

Without Mosul - by far the largest city to fall under militant control - Islamic State’s dominion in Iraq will be reduced to mainly rural, desert areas west and south of the city where tens of thousands of people live.

AFP A member of the Iraqi forces carries a child, as women who fled the fighting with Islamic State in the Old City of Mosul move belongings prior to being relocated from the western industrial district.

AFP Iraqi Prime Minister Haider alAbadi in Mosul on Sunday.