In ‘farewell speech’, Baghdadi admits IS defeat in Iraq

Iraq army controls roads out of Mosul, trapping IS fighters

ISLAMIC STATE chief Abu Bakr al-baghdadi has acknowledged the group’s defeat in Iraq in a “farewell speech” and ordered his non-arab fighters to either return to their countries or detonate themselves, according to media reports.

Baghdadi, who had declared himself as Caliph, issued a statement titled “farewell speech” which was distributed among IS’ preachers and clerics on Tuesday, as Iraqi army tightened noose around the group’s last remaining territory in Mosul, Alarabiya reported, quoting Iraqi TV network Al-sumaria.

Citing the sources in the Iraqi governorate of Nineveh, the report said Baghdadi ordered the closure of the IS office regulating the group’s fighters and asked the group’s non-arab fighters to either return to their countries or detonate themselves, promising them “72 women in heaven.”

Baghdadi, who has reportedly been wounded multiple times, carries a $10 million bounty on his head.

It is not clear if he is in the besieged city, where he declared his Caliphate in 2014 after the IS seized territory covering much of Syria and Iraq.

Many of IS’ leaders in Iraq have now fled towards the area controlled by the group in neighbouring Syria, it added.

Meanwhile, Iraqi army units Wednesday took control of the last major road out of western Mosul that had been in IS hands, trapping the militants in a shrinking area within the city, a general and residents said.

The army’s 9th Armoured Division was within a kilometre of Mosul’s Syria Gate, the city’s northwestern entrance, a general from the unit told Reuters by telephone.“weeffectivelycontrolthe road, it is in our sight,” he said.

Mosul residents said they had not been able to travel on the highway that starts at the Syria Gate since Tuesday. The road links Mosul to Tal Afar, another Islamic State stronghold 60 km to the west, and then to Syria.

The coalition effort against IS is killing the group’s fighters more quickly than it can replace them, officials said.

Reuters An airstrike hits western Mosul on Wednesday.