Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MOSUL HAS FALLEN
Iraqi PM claims victory... but we see jihadists fight to the last in city of bombs and blood EIGHT MONTHS OF HELL ENDS IN ISIS WIPE-OUT
IRAQI special forces were wiping the last diehard Islamic State fighters from Mosul yesterday after eight months of ferocious fighting.
Prime Minister Haider al-abadi flew in to praise his troops following the bloodiest urban military offensive the world has seen in decades.
An official statement said: “The PM arrived in the liberated city and congratulated the heroic fighters and Iraqi people for the great victory.”
More than 130,000 coalition-backed forces have battled thousands of ISIS fighters in Mosul’s deadly streets.
Yesterday troops, sensing victory, made a huge push against the extremists, driving them to the Tigris river and pounding them with machine-gun fire, mortars and Us-led air-strikes.
Brigadier General Yahya Rasool claimed 30 militants were killed trying to swim across the water.
Throughout the last dying hours of ISIS’S brutal presence in this ancient but key city, jihadists made repeated attempts to counter-attack the liberation troops.
But sources say they were left begging vengeful ground forces to let them escape to Tel Afar, a tiny ISIS foothold in Iraq close to Syria – and the next target for the coalition-backed troops.
One senior Iraqi government source said: “They tried to make a deal but there was no surrender and they were killed, or are being killed as we speak. This is the end of ISIS.”
Yet we witnessed government troops still coming under attack.
At least 35 suffered head and chest wounds from blasts and ISIS snipers.
Tragically, a young Iraqi police officer bled to death from a throat wound just feet away from us.
However medics managed to save the life of one soldier who was the victim of a female Chechen suicide bomber. She blew herself up along with the child she was carrying.
The soldier suffered horrific chest wounds and his right arm was severed. Amid the continued explosions in the heart of the city the liberation claims were being played down.
When told of Mr Abadi’s celebration statement, one American medic said: “I am calling bulls**t on that one.
“No way is this war over until we stop getting dying soldiers and civilians brought here.”
As we spoke outside a dusty field hospital, a young, fatally wounded police officer was lifted out of a Humvee.
Iraqi, Kurdish Peshmerga and militia troops have suffered horrific casualty rates, with many thousands dying and even more being injured during the operation.
As photographer Rowan Griffiths and myself approached the ruins of Mosul’s Old City, police revealed terrifying stories of female suicide bombers.
It is claimed the women – dubbed “black rat widows” – would go into tunnels, some carrying babies, emerging to detonate bombs to try to kill government fighters.
One officer said: “They, burrow down and come up behind us, blowing themselves up. We kill them as soon as we see them.”
An ISIS sniper has also picked off dozens of troops in the past week, firing from ruined buildings. But the gunfire, bombs, airstrikes and suicide bombs were more sporadic yesterday afternoon, with the jihadists making desperate dashes for the Tigris, through corpse-littered, stinking alleys.
ISIS has ruled Mosul in a barbaric orgy of rape, public beheadings, torture and crucifixions. They murdered thousands of Iraqi police and soldiers. But yesterday Abadi’s statement spread jubilation.
Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said: “Daesh has total disregard for innocent civilian life and we should welcome their defeat in a city that was ground zero for their so-called caliphate.”
As we left the smoking city, soldiers were cheering and beeping their horns. They believe that victory is finally theirs.
ISIS troops tried to make deals but there was no surrender SENIOR IRAQI ON PLEAS OF THE FLEEING JIHADISTS