MOSUL HAS FALLEN
Final push brings end to extremists’ caliphate dream Female suicide bombers still causing deadly havoc
IRAQI special forces were last night wiping the last diehard Isis fighters from Mosul after eight months of bloody fighting in the city.
But even as prime minister Haider al-Abadi flew into the city, prematurely celebrating his troops’ victory, we saw them dying on the frontline nearby.
At least 35 soldiers and police suffered wounds from blasts and Isis snipers.
Tragically, a young Iraqi police officer bled to death from a throat wound just feet away from us after being blown up by the last few Isis lunatics still fighting.
But amid the horror, there was hope after medics saved the life of a soldier hit by a female suicide bomber carrying her own baby.
He was airlifted to Baghdad with a severed right arm and chest wounds. Within hours, we heard he had survived.
This has been the bloodiest urban military offensive the world has seen in decades – and last night it was still not really over despite Abadi’s statement.
The Iraqi PM’s office said: “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.”
More than 130,000 coalition-backed forces have battled thousands of Isis fighters in Mosul.
Yesterday, troops sensing victory made one last desperate push against Isis, driving them all the way to the Tigris river and pounding them with machine gun fire, mortars and airstrikes.
Brigadier General Yahya Rasool said 30 militants were killed trying to escape across the Tigris.
Throughout the dying hours of Isis’s brutal presence in the city, jihadists made repeated attempts to counter-attack against liberation troops. At one point, sources say they begged ground forces to let them escape to Tel Afar, a tiny Isis foothold in Iraq close to Syria and the next target for coalition-backed troops.
An Iraqi government official said: “They tried to make a deal and promised never to return to this city but they got their reply. There was no surrender and they were killed or are being killed as we speak.
“This is the end of Daesh – or Isis as you call them – as Mosul was such an important and symbolic base for them.”
A US medic working on the frontline, hearing of Abadi’s celebration statement, said: “I am calling bulls*** on that one – the fighting is not over.
“Look at the smoke, the airstrikes and tell me he’s celebrating a victory. No way is this f ****** war over until we stop getting dying soldiers and civilians brought here.”
Iraqi, Kurdish Peshmerga and militia troops have suffered huge casualty rates in eight months of fighting here – with many thousands dead and more injured.
Photographer Rowan Griffiths and I have been reporting from Mosul, alongside Iraqi Special Forces as they battled the Isis last stand.
As we approached the ruins of the Old City yesterday, tense local police told terrifying tales of Chechen women fighters.
One said: “They are like rats – Russian and Chechen women killers, burrowing underground and coming up behind us, blowing themselves up. But we kill them as soon as we see them.”
Abadi’s announcement spread jubilation among troops.
As we left the still smoking city, sodliers were cheering and patting car bonnets in celebration.
This is the end of ISIS as Mosul was such a symbolic base for them IRAQI OFFICIAL